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

New EU rules on car speed limiters coming into force

breakingnews.ie

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 93 posts

Re: New EU rules on car speed limiters coming into force

#71

Post by Youden »

CSMastermind wrote: post #45
Youden wrote: post #24

I think the title is a bit misleading. The mandate is for intelligent speed assistance. I own a car with such a feature and I think it's already pretty common in higher-end vehicles even without the mandate. The form it takes in my car is that there's a little symbol with the current speed limit displayed on the HUD. The speed limit is sourced from road signs or the car's navigation data. When you exceed the speed li…

> However if you never turn on "cruise control", the feature is nothing but an easy to ignore red symbol on your HUD. So I drove a rental car that had this feature enabled and I found it not only infuriating but distracting as well. It didn't help that it would come on at the worst possible times. Like when I was driving and had to change lanes to pass someone or let another car in. This is exactly the time where I w…

In my car it's literally a symbol that's always there that silently turns red, there's nothing annoying, infuriating or otherwise attention-grabbing about it, it's just something you'll see if you happen to look at the speedometer.

I wouldn't assume that your experience applies to all cars. Different manufacturers will implement it differently.

Re: New EU rules on car speed limiters coming into force

#72

Post by aspyct »

I have a car with an intelligent speed limiter.

It is dangerous.

I tried it yesterday for the first - and last - time. On the highway, it picked up a speed limit sign that was intended for the side lane, and started reducing my speed fast and unexpectedly.

I love the speed limiter, the dumb version. I think it's a super nice way to avoid accidentally going over the speed limit without having to keep an eye on the speedometer, and therefore off the road.

I would love to use an intelligent speed limiter. But let's face it, there are always cases where those things will fail unexpectedly and dangerously.

That's not even considering voluntary tampering with the road signs. What if I put up a 5km/h sign along the highway. How would the car determine it's bogus?

I wouldn't mind a global limiter that prevents going to unsafe speeds well over the highway speed limits.

Re: New EU rules on car speed limiters coming into force

#73

Post by Youden »

b20000 wrote: post #66
abstractbeliefs wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The regulators permit something akin to kickdown. While the cars will limit you under gentle/steady state driving, if you floor the accelerator to avoid an accident, the limiters will disengage: 3.6.1.4. It shall be possible for the driver to override the SCF intervention by performing a positive action, for example by pressing the accelerator control harder or deeper. from https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/…

at the cost of a delay which could make the difference between life and death

The system acts slowly and and is only active if the driver has engaged it (like cruise control).

You'll be driving at 120kph and you'll notice the car has slowed to 118kph because it thinks the speed limit is 100kph. You push the accelerator and update the speed limit. Done.

I honestly can't see this causing an accident. The thing isn't performing an emergency stop or anything.

Re: New EU rules on car speed limiters coming into force

#74

Post by kolinko »

moritonal wrote: post #54
CSMastermind wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> However if you never turn on "cruise control", the feature is nothing but an easy to ignore red symbol on your HUD. So I drove a rental car that had this feature enabled and I found it not only infuriating but distracting as well. It didn't help that it would come on at the worst possible times. Like when I was driving and had to change lanes to pass someone or let another car in. This is exactly the time where I w…

It's not very encouraging that you are trying to overtake someone by speeding.

How many times have you overtaken someone outside of a highway?

Re: New EU rules on car speed limiters coming into force

#76

Post by vr46 »

moritonal wrote: post #54
CSMastermind wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> However if you never turn on "cruise control", the feature is nothing but an easy to ignore red symbol on your HUD. So I drove a rental car that had this feature enabled and I found it not only infuriating but distracting as well. It didn't help that it would come on at the worst possible times. Like when I was driving and had to change lanes to pass someone or let another car in. This is exactly the time where I w…

It's not very encouraging that you are trying to overtake someone by speeding.

I have done the advanced motorcycle training and safety - everyone’s, not just mine - is the top priority, and overtaking safely and smoothly is paramount. If you happen to exceed the speed limit briefly while doing so, it is not commented on. Safety is the main constraint when riding or driving, not speeding.

Re: New EU rules on car speed limiters coming into force

#77

Post by belorn »

AmericanChopper wrote: post #39
harg wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How often do your seatbelt warning give out false positives? Never, in any car I’ve ever been in, have I seen a false positive seatbelt warning.

I’ve seen it many times. Every time I put a heavy object on a seat without plugging the seatbelts in.

Now imagine this happening, but rather than being still at the car park you are on the highway and the situation is requiring a lot of concentration, and you can't just plug in the seatbelt to fix it.

Re: New EU rules on car speed limiters coming into force

#78

Post by midasz »

moritonal wrote: post #54
CSMastermind wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> However if you never turn on "cruise control", the feature is nothing but an easy to ignore red symbol on your HUD. So I drove a rental car that had this feature enabled and I found it not only infuriating but distracting as well. It didn't help that it would come on at the worst possible times. Like when I was driving and had to change lanes to pass someone or let another car in. This is exactly the time where I w…

It's not very encouraging that you are trying to overtake someone by speeding.

I prefer to quickly get past someone so that even faster traffic can also proceed. It's more dangerous to keep 2 lanes occupied while a line of cars is pushing behind you. It's a fact that some cars will go fast, better to let them pass. Obviously still being safe while speeding... If someone in the right lane is going 95km/hr, I'm willing to speed up to around 105-108km/hr - it's perfectly safe.

The reasons other cars want to go fast/exceed the limit is not really something I worry about. What if they're going to the hospital? What if they're undercover cops getting to a scene? What if they just want to get to work fast? I don't care. I care about my safety, so better get out of their way safely. If I notice someone coming up behind me with 120km/hr in a 100km/hr zone, I am 100% speeding up so I can move out of their way. If I don't, all that's going to happen is them having to brake hard, causing other behind them to brake out of instinct... It's the fault of the person speeding of course, but people at fault aren't the only ones getting hurt by their actions.

Re: New EU rules on car speed limiters coming into force

#79

Post by midasz »

aspyct wrote: post #72

I have a car with an intelligent speed limiter. It is dangerous. I tried it yesterday for the first - and last - time. On the highway, it picked up a speed limit sign that was intended for the side lane, and started reducing my speed fast and unexpectedly. I love the speed limiter, the dumb version. I think it's a super nice way to avoid accidentally going over the speed limit without having to keep an eye on the spe…

Are there so many unmapped roads in the US? Or are there arbitrary variants of limits?

I use Waze in NL and so far, for every road it knows the limit.

Re: New EU rules on car speed limiters coming into force

#80

Post by AllegedAlec »

padjo wrote: post #41

Would want to be more accurate than than the current tech. Mine regularly gets confused near motorway off ramps and drops speed from 120 to 50. Implementing a max speed of 120 would be good though. It’s never legal to exceed that so why does the car allow it?

> It’s never legal to exceed that so why does the car allow it?

Smoothbrain take. It is. If I'm driving on the highway and a dam broke behind me and a 5 meter tall wall of water is coming at me at 180, I am allowed to speed to stay ahead.

Post reply on HN