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New cars will stop drivers from speeding under European laws

drive.com.au

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Re: New cars will stop drivers from speeding under European laws

#81

Post by woodruffw »

legostormtroopr wrote: post #55

This is not a bad idea - but speed limits have not changed to reflect changing cars. Speed limits are stuck at 100km in Australia and have been for decades - despite cars introducing anti-lock breaking, predictive breaking, anti-rollover technology, lane assist and so on. Cars are now much much safer, and yet speed limits outside of cities have not changed to reflect this. If the government wants to introduce speed l…

You mentioned it, but to clarify: cars are much safer for their occupants. As a pedestrian or cyclist, I'm pink mist whether the speeding car has lane assist or not.

Re: New cars will stop drivers from speeding under European laws

#82

Post by Raed667 »

valine wrote: post #50
Raed667 wrote: post #3

There is absolutely no reason any road car should be able to (consistently) drive faster than ~150km/h

You’d eliminate all traffic fatalities if you limited cars to 5 mph. We as a society have collectively decided that X number of traffic fatalities are acceptable. It’s the price everyone pays for efficient transportation. Why 150km/h and not 40km/h? Are you too impatient to drive 40km/h even though it could save lives?

This is a bad faith argument, but I'll respond: 150km/h is not arbitrary.

In most Europe, highway speed-limits are between 110km/h and 130km/h [0] give or take 40km/h to 20km/h to get out of a dangerous overtake and 150km/h should be more than enough for most cases.

Notice I added (consistently) for clarity, there are very rare cases where one needs to accelerate, but I find it very hard to justify a car going almost twice the highway speed limit for 30 minutes non stop.

[0] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Highway_speed_limits...

Re: New cars will stop drivers from speeding under European laws

#83

Post by onionisafruit »

Raed667 wrote: post #3

There is absolutely no reason any road car should be able to (consistently) drive faster than ~150km/h

Have you ever been on I-10 in west Texas or New Mexico? Nothing but straight, flat blacktop and little traffic. 150km/h (93 mph for my fellow Americans) is kind of slow for that stretch. Granted it is 8 mph above the posted speed limit, but nobody really pays attention to that.

Re: New cars will stop drivers from speeding under European laws

#84

Post by ThatGeoGuy »

lvass wrote: post #9

So all cars will be susceptible to "phantom braking" due to a bug or worse? I really dislike this, and living in the third world I can already imagine fake road signs being used to decelerate and rob cars.

I'm not sure why this is the consistent take. We have e-scooters and bikes with limiters on speed, why would this be materially different than cars?

It's not like it needs to slam on the brake, it just needs to disengage acceleration past a certain speed. This isn't new grounds for tech and it is _currently_ deployed on our streets.

I'm not sure what the panic over this is, if anything this is a good thing - why should passenger vehicles go 200+ km/h anyways? Why isn't a more reasonable limit imposed, for cars that spend 99% of their time in an urban centre? What actual road is engineered to even support that kind of speed?

Re: New cars will stop drivers from speeding under European laws

#85

Post by MerelyMortal »

tter3 wrote: post #40
Raed667 wrote: post #3

There is absolutely no reason any road car should be able to (consistently) drive faster than ~150km/h

When Mt Saint Helens erupted there was an account from a survivor who raced away at 100mph, passing a car traveling at 80mph and seeing the slower car disappear into the ash cloud with little chance of surviving. Even in in the most extreme events your proposed limit is adequate. https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1310&dat=19800605&id=...

Thank you for the link. Wow, that was sad.

Re: New cars will stop drivers from speeding under European laws

#86

Post by varajelle »

Most comments in this thread comments on the fact that Europeans are loosing their freedom do speed, and that they will not be able to drive fast.

But that's just the title of an Australian website.

In the article, and in the actual law, this is just about a *warning* to the driver, that can optionally be coupled with the cruise control, and that *can be overridden* by the driver.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_speed_assistance#I...

Basically all cars manufacturers today already have that technology. What this law means is that the car maker can no longer make this system an overpriced option when selling the car.

Re: New cars will stop drivers from speeding under European laws

#88

Post by _8j50 »

A better idea would be to mandate black-boxes so if you do get pulled over there is no contest on whether or not you were speeding or made a full stop at the stop sign. You can use that as evidence and it can be used against you as well. This way, when I am driving on 85mph limited road under ideal conditions and little traffic I can pass other cars doing 100mph or more to get past the current pack and stay under 90 till the next pack. The right lane is for driving speed limit, left lanes are for driving past the limit while passing until you merge back on the right lane(s).

In Texas at least the speed limit is "whatever is safe" (you have to obey posted signs but you also have an obligation to drive faster or slower as safety demands it, as can be proven in court)

Re: New cars will stop drivers from speeding under European laws

#89

Post by valine »

stefan_ wrote: post #71
valine wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’d eliminate all traffic fatalities if you limited cars to 5 mph. We as a society have collectively decided that X number of traffic fatalities are acceptable. It’s the price everyone pays for efficient transportation. Why 150km/h and not 40km/h? Are you too impatient to drive 40km/h even though it could save lives?

Oh no, we will just limit it at the speed limit. What could be the problem with that? No one has accepted anything, certainly not the increasing number of dead pedestrians from ever larger cars. You surely recognize the massive moral hazard.

Driving the speed of traffic is safer than driving the speed limit. Or what about when you’re seeking shelter during a tornado warning or bringing someone to the hospital. Or maybe you just want to get away from a road raging a-hole.

People die all the time on roads it’s true. Enforcing a zero tolerance policy for speeding wont stop that. It will have many unintended consequences.

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