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Ask HN: Why do they make cars go so fast if it’s illegal?

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Re: Ask HN: Why do they make cars go so fast if it’s illegal?

#31

Post by martin_a »

bierjunge wrote: post #18
nikisweeting wrote: post #6

Tracks, private roads, autobahns, dynos, plenty of places to go fast legally. Not to mention the extra power goes towards faster acceleration, not just top speed. The same force that gets you an extra 10mph top speed also works to get you from from 0-60mph that much faster.

Especially Autobahn in Germany is interesting. Generally there is no speed limit, but something called "Richtgeschwindigkeit" (the advised speed you should go, which is 130km/h). But there ARE speed limits on most parts of the Autobahn (construction sites are generally limited to 60 or 80km/h, dangerous sections, etc. so it's often limited to 100-140 km/h). Sections without speed limit are a lot of fun and created a…

We should add that traffic flow on normal days will prevent you from going _real fast_ for longer durations. People who try that will regularly provoke dangerous situations.

A general speed limit on the Autobahn is long overdue. Lots of our neighbours (see Austria, Switzerland, Netherlands, Italy) are doing fine that way.

Re: Ask HN: Why do they make cars go so fast if it’s illegal?

#32

Post by 0-_-0 »

Goz3rr wrote: post #29
hhmmmsms wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course, street-legal automobiles could simply be governed with a top speed of the fastest legal speed limit in a given region.

How do you imagine this working for someone who drives across Europe frequently, including sections of unrestricted Autobahn? Or someone who takes their street legal car onto (private) tracks from time to time?

GPS :)

Re: Ask HN: Why do they make cars go so fast if it’s illegal?

#34

Post by soco »

croon wrote: post #27

1) There are different speed limits on different roads. If you put an artificial limit on how fast your car could go, it would still go illegally fast on slower roads. 2) Speed limits change. It would be a hassle (understatement of the week) to update every single car. 3) As others have said, you can always drive legally on private tracks.

You could nowadays easily imagine a GPS-based governor according to the speed limit of the road you're on...

Re: Ask HN: Why do they make cars go so fast if it’s illegal?

#36

Post by dezmou »

donatj wrote: post #17
dezmou wrote: post #5

It is legal to accelerate from 0 to 100Kph very quickly

In Minnesota at least we “unlawful acceleration” / “unreasonable acceleration” statute. I have a couple friends who have received tickets for it.

I didn't know about this, I think we don't have this in France

Re: Ask HN: Why do they make cars go so fast if it’s illegal?

#37

Post by croon »

soco wrote: post #34
croon wrote: post #27

1) There are different speed limits on different roads. If you put an artificial limit on how fast your car could go, it would still go illegally fast on slower roads. 2) Speed limits change. It would be a hassle (understatement of the week) to update every single car. 3) As others have said, you can always drive legally on private tracks.

You could nowadays easily imagine a GPS-based governor according to the speed limit of the road you're on...

Sure, and I can also easily imagine many ways in which it fails :)

Re: Ask HN: Why do they make cars go so fast if it’s illegal?

#38

Post by TruthHurts44 »

pulse7 wrote: post #19

Fast cars are expensive. Germany wants to sell A LOT of expensive cars. But there is a problem: in most countries fast cars are illegal. So how to solve this problem? German carmakers tells about this problem to the German government. German government finds a solution: allow unlimited speed on German highways so we can make fast cars legal - at least in Germany. Now "they make cars go so fast" and they are legal - i…

Fast cars are not illegal...

Re: Ask HN: Why do they make cars go so fast if it’s illegal?

#39

Post by kwhitefoot »

rxever wrote: post #3

In Germany there is no speed limit on highways.

A lot of German highways do have speed limits. I have driven from Norway to the UK and back several times over the last three years via Germany, I think that probably only half the motorway driving in Germany was unrestricted. And even where it is technically unrestricted the traffic is so heavy during the rush hour that you can sometimes walk faster. I have Hamburg and its perennial roadworks in mind.

Re: Ask HN: Why do they make cars go so fast if it’s illegal?

#40

Post by rorykoehler »

Goz3rr wrote: post #33
rorykoehler wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

*small sections of some highways

70% of the Autobahn is unrestricted, that is not a small section.

That's surprising as it certainly feels like more of it is restricted when driving on it. If you drive the autobahn you will curse that any of it is unrestricted. There is enough changing between limits and no limits to create additional cognitive load. It seems like more than 30% is restricted as time traveled on the unrestricted bits is less per km. I never received more speeding fines in my life than when I drove from Berlin to Austria and back.
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