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New anti-speeding system coming to Australia is dangerous

carexpert.com.au

31–40 of 96 posts

Re: New anti-speeding system coming to Australia is dangerous

#31
post #19
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I frequently pass cars that have signs of an impaired driver. Usually the driver is texting, but the signs are usually failure to maintain lane, frequent (unnecessary) brake tapping, and sporadic acceleration. Something that impedes my ability to pass unsafe drivers is unsafe.

If you're following close enough for them to be a danger to you then your driving is already unsafe.

Close enough to be a danger in a car is "visible" (even if the view of them is blocked). More specific to the example is someone going 20 under the ambient traffic. They are someone you should get past safely, not stay behind.

Re: New anti-speeding system coming to Australia is dangerous

#32
I for one support this system. I drive a VW with this feature and it's fine. It recognizes signs well enough. There's a built in grace of about 5km/h. The only thing the car does is that it produces a few gentle dinging sounds that are completely different from other warning sounds like parking sensors, when someone hasn't buckled in, door is open, etc.

I have no intention of speeding and welcome the warning to consider I may have missed a sign. And if it is wrong, or I wish to ignore it, it's only like three subtle dings before it shuts up. It's fine. Perhaps the issue is not in the law, but the specific car manufacturer in the article.

Re: New anti-speeding system coming to Australia is dangerous

#33
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This scenario is terribly specified. If you don't have clear time to pass a car in front of you without going an absurd amount over the posted speed limit, you almost certainly are putting yourself in danger already? I'll go further and say that people that take excess speeds in this scenario are already causing more accidents today, than a limiter would cause in the future. Edit: I should say I think it would be a b…

It is poorly specified but also pretty common with the obvious variations. Eg: the person you are trying to pass, passive-aggressively speeds up.

There is nothing passive aggressive about speeding up when being passed. The previous behavior of going too slow is what was passive aggressive; but once that driver accelerates, they have disrobed themselves of all pretence of passivity.

Re: New anti-speeding system coming to Australia is dangerous

#34
post #23

Drove a rented Kia in Central Australia recently that had this. It was fine: just stick below the speed limit. "Dangerous" to someone who continuously rides the speed limit perhaps.

The speed limit is the speed you should be driving in most circumstances, and is set far below the maximum safe speed for the road. Driving significantly below the pasted speed is as dangerous driving significantly above it.

Some roads have ridiculously low posted limits. Everyone goes well over, yet those roads are not noted for accidents. If they set the speed limit according to how everyone drives there, then I'd be in more in favor of alerting those who go even 1 km/h over that.

Re: New anti-speeding system coming to Australia is dangerous

#35
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This scenario is terribly specified. If you don't have clear time to pass a car in front of you without going an absurd amount over the posted speed limit, you almost certainly are putting yourself in danger already? I'll go further and say that people that take excess speeds in this scenario are already causing more accidents today, than a limiter would cause in the future. Edit: I should say I think it would be a b…

I wholeheartedly disagree. When you’re passing someone on a two-lane highway you should always speed way up to get the hell out of the lane of oncoming traffic.

In general, you shouldn't be passing in a scenario that requires you jumping over ~10mph over the limit. And if you can see oncoming traffic, pretty much at all, you should probably not pass.

Re: New anti-speeding system coming to Australia is dangerous

#36
post #19
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I frequently pass cars that have signs of an impaired driver. Usually the driver is texting, but the signs are usually failure to maintain lane, frequent (unnecessary) brake tapping, and sporadic acceleration. Something that impedes my ability to pass unsafe drivers is unsafe.

If you're following close enough for them to be a danger to you then your driving is already unsafe.

I regularly see drivers who are obviously drunk and intoxicated and swerving all over the road, variously speeding up and slowing down. The safest thing to do is to accelerate well clear of these drivers and leave them far behind, not slow down to an absurdly slow speed and drive behind them for miles and miles.

Re: New anti-speeding system coming to Australia is dangerous

#37
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This scenario is terribly specified. If you don't have clear time to pass a car in front of you without going an absurd amount over the posted speed limit, you almost certainly are putting yourself in danger already? I'll go further and say that people that take excess speeds in this scenario are already causing more accidents today, than a limiter would cause in the future. Edit: I should say I think it would be a b…

It is poorly specified but also pretty common with the obvious variations. Eg: the person you are trying to pass, passive-aggressively speeds up.

If this is common where you are, you are near some pretty bad drivers? Passing on a two lane road is something that you pretty much should only do if the lead car is below the speed limit.

Re: New anti-speeding system coming to Australia is dangerous

#38
post #14

I have one of the cars with this system and I believe it is dangerous, as the car is beeping for your attention, it causes regular split second distractions from your situational awareness. The main issue is that these aren’t the only beeps the car does, it has many other beeps, including one for when it notices the speed limit has changed. So you have to spend some mental power figuring out which beep you’re getting…

My car is from before this time but I've driven a few rentals with these features and it is absolutely terrible. Feels like you're driving a theme park ride, with all that flashing and beeping.

What's also terrible is how they're constantly correcting the steering wheel because of invariably incorrect lane detection and one car would even happily overcorrect but then steer me right over the opposite line because it would never correct its own manoeuvres.

I will never buy a car like this and I will happily drive second hand vehicles instead.

No way. Car manufacturers just suck at software, always have and always will, and these systems make everything worse and less safe.

Re: New anti-speeding system coming to Australia is dangerous

#39
I don't see anything wrong with this and hope that countries and manufacturers start to cut power or refuse to exceed limits.

At the very least within cities and towns. New modes of transit have geofenced speed govenors, I don't think we should grandfather cars exceptions.

Re: New anti-speeding system coming to Australia is dangerous

#40
post #25

Drove a rented Kia in Central Australia recently that had this. It was fine: just stick below the speed limit. "Dangerous" to someone who continuously rides the speed limit perhaps.

I own one, unfortunately it is often wrong about what the speed limit is. So it’s not quite so straightforward.

We’ve a fairly new car with a similar system (that can be ignored/disabled thankfully). It seems to have both a some GPS/location based awareness of what the speed is meant to be that it falls back to as well as a camera based detection. I find it useful as a reference incase I don’t know what the speed is and missed the previous sign, but it’s also regularly wrong and not to be entirely trusted. For example the on ramp to the closest freeway near us it consistently reports as 10km/h when it’s actually 100km/h. I don’t know what it is about that sign specifically it can’t read as it looks fine to the human eye, but it would try to cap our speed on the freeway to >=90 km/h slower than the rest of the traffic (most are traveling slightly above) if we were to have the system enabled. As others in the comments have suggested it also can’t be trusted to get the speed right in school zones or for the correct distance for variable recommendations (e.g., speed bumps, roundabouts, etc.)
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