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That said I generally stick to the speed limits [1], but what if I need to get to the hospital in a hurry? At least around here local laws are quite clear that you are allowed to break laws and regulations to save lives.
[1]: old habit, wasn't always a well paid programmer and also I mostly think it is the right thing to do :-)
Driving a car that doesn't accelerate well while hearing a sound like you are hurting your engine is unpleasant, even for passengers.
Disclaimer: IANAL, but also asked that question once in my youth, and went digging for the answer. They technically don't in a meaningful sense. What they do is make a car that has high torque and can accelerate 0-60 mph as quickly as possible. This has the unwanted side effect of also being able to still continue accelerating quickly past the target zone ( The acceleration in cars are designed around pretty much one…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 :)
It also wouldn't work on road sections with variable speed.
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?
Ideally, they'd just harmonize the speed limit in the EU; a majority in Germany approves of introducing a general speed limit on motorways anyways. But that'd hurt the bottom line of car manufacturers and we can't have that.
Also, GPS-validated speed limits for new cars. And I don't mean just the top speed in a country, I mean the posted speed limit on whatever road you are. Doesn't need to be a hard limit, in case of emergencies and for maneuvering, but make something interesting happen: online registration, enable the hazard lights, I'm sure there are many good options. It's ridiculous we're talking about fully automated driving and we don't even have this simple automation which would get rid of an entire class of everyday offense.
[1] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Freeway_speed_limits_eur...
But we could rephrase it to "why aren't top speeds limited to the maximum speed limit?".
It's got me thinking about the creeping culture of safetyism, especially against the current backdrop of Covid-related restrictions.
In some ways it makes no sense that cars are not restricted to a sensible top speed. Either a simple dumb limiter set to the top speed limit for the country, or something more sophisticated using GPS (or a combination of the two). Doing so would possibly (probably?) save many lives per year. Yet it's unlikely to happen because:
1. there's a powerful automotive industry that relies on cars retaining their power as a status symbol
2. there are a lot of powerful and influential people who enjoy driving fast cars.
It frightens me that we are seemingly only able to retain our freedoms when there is some powerful industrial lobby to protect them.
People are currently being subjected to much, much greater restrictions of freedom than having the top speed of their car capped. Entire livelihoods are being destroyed on the basis of "saving lives". Perhaps this is justified. I personally don't think so but a convincing argument can be made.
If there's a conclusion to this, it's that we need to move past the "if it saves some lives, it's worth it" style of argument.
It sounds brutal, but some values are worth holding on to even if they kill people. You may balk at that statement, but you implicitly accept that compromise every day, even if you've never explicitly thought about it.
It isn't illegal everywhere. Acceleration is a big part of the enjoyment of fast cars. That's not usually illegal. Also, having better acceleration can help reduce the 'time exposed to danger' when overtaking, which may still be below the local speed limit. Faster cars can be safer, see...
Acceleration is definitely helpful (to a point , even on the track), but for instance I live in the UK where the max speed limit is 70mph, and my very ordinary car is specced to do more than double that. I don’t see the benefit of being about to do >>100mph outweighing the risks- earlier comment mentions how this arises from the need for useful torque bands in IC engines which explains a lot and makes perfect sense, but with modern engine controllers and especially electric I agree that this is no longer necessary to leave enabled in the vast majority of vehicles.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
GPS :)
But then you need an up-to-date database of allowed speeds on roads all over the world, and since those already aren't reliable when they're used as indicative data, I don't think that's a viable solution. It also wouldn't work on road sections with variable speed.
Variable speed roads, either make the limit the highest speed that's in the range, or come up with a way to communicate the current limit. Most new cars are always connected, anyways. And again, you can fail fast, at least initially. As with all driving aids, the person in the driver's seat bears the ultimate responsibility.
