Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Volvo is introducing a 112mph speed limiter to all its new cars

arstechnica.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

271–277 of 277 posts

Re: Volvo is introducing a 112mph speed limiter to all its new cars

#271

Post by henvic »

anticensor wrote: post #259
henvic wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regarding sudden acceleration (and it's a good time to remember acceleration isn't speed) avoiding accidents... I live in Brazil. There is a tax supposed to cause road accidents here. If your powertrain is > 1.0, the tax you pay when buying cars has a sudden increase. Therefore, many if not most people buy 1.0 cars here (). This is valid even for some that are not consider lower end here (though would be anywhere els…

> If your powertrain is > 1.0, the tax you pay when buying cars has a sudden increase. What do you mean? Engine displacement>1L? Transmission overdrive? Something else?

Engine displacement > 1L (in fact, > 999cm³).

Not sure if these values are still valid, but if they are not they should be even worse nowadays.

Made in Brazil: 2L - 41.6% or 48.6% (gas + ethanol)

Imports: 2L - 71,6% or 78,6% (gas + ethanol)

Also, immediate availability is lower and most cars are manual with no cruise control :(

And obviously you'd already be paying a little bit more for a more powerful engine, so the increase is actually at least 10%, and most lower income people just get stuck with 1.0 for their whole lives...

https://www.noticiasautomotivas.com.br/automovel-recolhe-de-...

Re: Volvo is introducing a 112mph speed limiter to all its new cars

#272

Post by philsnow »

papageek wrote: post #236
joezydeco wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Geography and equipment do not change your ability to react to events. I've driven 180-200 km/h on the German autobahns (in a car that could handle it) and I could tell I was driving at the edge or slightly beyond my vision and reaction time. It was freaking scary. I don't know if every driver out there could tell when they were hitting that limit. The golf cart analogy doesn't apply here IMO.

Are you talking about curving roads? 220 km/h is no problem on straight flat stretches.

the autobahn is specifically designed not to have unbroken flat straight stretches because that disengages the drivers

Re: Volvo is introducing a 112mph speed limiter to all its new cars

#273

Post by Shorel »

acrooks wrote: post #247
Shorel wrote: post #74

I would love if all cars had a cruise speed mode where I could say, I want the top speed to be 60, and it never goes faster. The difference here is that I would choose this speed, instead of it being set only by the manufacturer. It is also OK if the car had both limits, a manufacturer max and a lower max speed configurable by the driver.

This is available on cars manufactured by Holden - I rented one a few weeks ago and it let me set a maximum speed on the cruise control. I actually found this to be far more intuitive than cruise control with a minimum speed, because I just kept my foot constantly depressed on the accelerator, and the car never went above the maximum. But when I needed to slow down slightly, e.g., for a car in front of me, I could li…

> because I just kept my foot constantly depressed on the accelerator, and the car never went above the maximum

You got it, that's what I want.

Re: Volvo is introducing a 112mph speed limiter to all its new cars

#274

Post by tracker1 »

cpursley wrote: post #124
tracker1 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I drive a 392 challenger scat pack shaker... I don't think I've ever had it over 100, though the max is 201. I'm not sure I'd be bothered by a regulator for the top speed. That said, I don't think speeding is even close to the number 1 killer these days... Cell phones seem to be the leading cause of accidents these days. Maybe they should detect motion over 5mph and turn off display of messaging apps, only bluetooth…

> I drive a 392 challenger scat pack shaker... I don't think I've ever had it over 100 I don't see the point of a vehicle like this unless you drag race it on a regular basis. It has limited utility, is larger than an Abrams tank, guzzles fuel like it's 1998 and couldn't make it around a slalom cone course even with a skilled driver. It's a make a lot of noise and go really fast in a straight line car. That's what it…

I've driven it across the country a few times... twice from AZ through to northern WA, and out to FL once. It's fun to drive, accelerates nicely... for that matter, most of my highway time is in 4cyl (eco mode at 30+mpg). Last drive from WA to Phoenix, the average was 34mpg. On the flip side, I can go uphill and not feel like I'm stuck in molasses.

In town driving I get around 19mpg average... by contrast, the last 4cyl car I had got around 24mpg in town, and was horrible to drive.

I also prefer the looks, and sit very comfortably compared to smaller cars (I'm big and tall). I don't sit comfortably in any other coupe.

Re: Volvo is introducing a 112mph speed limiter to all its new cars

#276

Post by Shorel »

jandrese wrote: post #152
yeahboats wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't this what cruise control is? Or do you want this to be a hidden limit, say for one's kids' cars?

Cruise control won't hit the brakes if you are going downhill and exceed your set speed. I think he's looking for the latter. Setting it to 60 is probably too low though unless the OP only ever drives in the city. I'm hoping he's not one of those people who immediately shove their way over to the far left lane of the interstate and never move until they suddenly jump across three lanes of traffic at the last second t…

60 is just an example number.

The point is that it should be configurable by the driver and easy to enable and disable. Like the parking lights.

Re: Volvo is introducing a 112mph speed limiter to all its new cars

#277

Post by snvzz »

DKnoll wrote: post #159
snvzz wrote: post #116

Suddenly can't accelerate because of stupid speed limit -> Death. Due to this fear, many a person (including myself) will simply never buy one such car.

What car do you have now? Unless it's a high-end vehicle it most likely has a limiter already.

Full disclosure: I don't own a car or a license, nor am I interested in driving.

Doesn't meant I can't understand the concept of accelerating away from danger, or being unable to do so due to a stupid limiter and dying.

Post reply on HN