Speed Limiters in cars...

Ronan H

Whats the deal with speed limiters in cars, as in, why are cars manufactured to be able to do such huge speeds when its not really necessary? Surely in terms of road safety it would be a good idea to have such things in cars and then there would be physically no way that people could drive at outrageous speeds, with the exception of people having them removed obviously. Does anyone have any more information about this?

Limiter Head

Owen

Having a limiter in a car is a bad idea for so many reasons. It will increase the length of time to complete an overtake, and if for example, a driver who doesn't know it's fitted tries to overtake, and gets killed, then it's all academic.

The people who complain about limiters not being fitted are generally the type of people who view cars as a-b transport utilities. The rest of us, who enjoy our cars just don't see the point.

McSandwich

Head wrote:

Whats the deal with speed limiters in cars, as in, why are cars manufactured to be able to do such huge speeds when its not really necessary? Surely in terms of road safety it would be a good idea to have such things in cars and then there would be physically no way that people could drive at outrageous speeds, with the exception of people having them removed obviously. Does anyone have any more information about this?

Limiter Head

The only way speed limiters could work effectively would be as part of a GPS controlled system. Otherwise a car limited to 150Km/h could still do a lot of damage in a 50Km/h zone.

I think the real problem is that too many drivers have responsible driving limiters installed.

Marcus.Aurelius

EU market is quite diverse. Speed limits are virtually non-existent on autobahns in Germany. I've zipped along them at 160 kph +.

As a country, we'd probably have to get all the importers to do it, but it would be shot down by the nay-sayers, me included!

peasant

Every car has a built in speed limiter !

It's the bit that connects the steering wheel to the pedals

quarryman

is there a product out there will know what speed zone you are in and not necessarily force the car to slow down, but warn you instead?

May be GPS system?

I reckon i need one, i'm gonna get done doing 60kmh in 50kmh zone one of these days without realising.

Owen

Most GPS units can be set to warn you if you exceed the speed limit. I've mine set to nag if I go 15kph over the limit. Or if herself's in the car, I get a slap. Both work equally well.

Ronan H

One of the insurance companies offers a discounted policy if you install a tracker for your speed. It might be the people who do the Ignition course, Hibernian?

Tracker Head

Hellrazer

quarryman wrote:

is there a product out there will know what speed zone you are in and not necessarily force the car to slow down, but warn you instead?

May be GPS system?

I reckon i need one, i'm gonna get done doing 60kmh in 50kmh zone one of these days without realising.

The New Zealand government(I think it was NZ anyway) were toying with an idea like that a few years back where the system limited your speed depending on what "speed limit" was enforce in the area the vehicle was located.
Dont think it ever came to much though.

In my opinion it would be a good idea for "inexperienced" drivers or those with a certain number of penalty points to be fitted with some sort of system like the above.Most drivers on the roads are safe drivers.
But those that are already proven to be "bad" drivers should be penalised by having it fitted.

At this stage anything that saves life is worth it.

Sandwich

peasant wrote:

Every car has a built in speed limiter !

It's the bit that connects the steering wheel to the pedals

MOst of them seem to be faulty then.:rolleyes:

astraboy

What about if you take your car to a track day, or use your car for rally, drifting, or perhaps even a clerk of the course at a rally stage and you are limited to 100kph? If I spend money on a performance car then I may want to enjoy it at speeds now and again in a safe area. Why not just limit cars to 5mph the way your going on Head?:rolleyes: You seem to be obsessed with these speed related threads today. How about someone start a thread on driver training and testing, or road conditions? O yes, those bandwagons need far more insight to jump on I forgot. :rolleyes:

bazz26

In my opinion the driver should not need an electronic gadget to remind him/her that he/she is driving too fast.

That is what good driver eduction and judgement is for imo. Unfortunately as the statistics show every week alot of drivers are generally lacking in both.

JHMEG

ned78 wrote:

Most GPS units can be set to warn you if you exceed the speed limit. I've mine set to nag if I go 15kph over the limit. Or if herself's in the car, I get a slap. Both work equally well.

That's providing the GPS system knows the local limit, and in the majority of cases both Navteq and Tele Atlas data is just plain wrong about speed limits in this country (the local authorities have no obligation to inform them of limits, or of changes to speed limits).

Another problem is inappropriate speed limits. When we switched to metric limits the Leitrim Observer carried a photograph on the front page of a boreen, complete with tall grass growing in the middle (you know the type) that had 100km/h limit signs!:eek:

There is no substitue for common sense, and of being aware of the local limit.

Breaking the limit is an offence. If you can't overtake safely without breaking the speed limit, don't overtake.

MarkN

The AMOUNT of money the government would lose in VRT and VAT if they brought something like this in. Nobody would buy fast and expensive cars anymore...

I'd say you've two chances of it happening.

Captain Slow IRL

peasant wrote:

Every car has a built in speed limiter !

It's the bit that connects the steering wheel to the pedals

:rolleyes:
Limiters should be compulsory with learner drivers - a lot of them just don't have any comprehension of speed.

I wonder if that silver ferrari had a limiter............:D

Seth Brundle

What would you limit them to? 50km/h?
Would you then complain if you got stuck behind one on one of our National Routes or would you stand by them and say how they have every right to use the road even if they block traffic?
What happens to the limiter if its a family car and the learner drivers parent who owns the car wants to use it? Would you allow them to disable it?

Captain Slow IRL

100kmph
I don't mind being stuck behind someone who is keeping it around this speed (if I see an "L" plate in a car, I give them space and overtake if necessary)
Parental lock?! - you can get it on computers and dvd players..........

Seth Brundle

Whats the point in that?
You propose to limit drivers to the national speed limit that nobody is allowed cross anyway unless on a motorway (where L-drivers are not!).
So in effect they aren't limited at all and could still drive at that speed up grafton street on a saturday afternoon!

As for parental lock - are you pissed?

bazz26

land9 wrote:

:rolleyes:
Limiters should be compulsory with learner drivers - a lot of them just don't have any comprehension of speed.

In fairness excessive speeding and general bad driving is not just limited to learner drivers.

Captain Slow IRL

drivers with less than 2 years experience are most likely to be involved in an accident and the majority of accidents are attributed to speed - limiting speed with inexperienced drivers should be introduced in this country.

end of discussion.

Owen

land9 wrote:

:rolleyes:
Limiters should be compulsory with learner drivers

So, if you limit speed, they're supposed to learn ... how?

Del2005

Theres no need for limiters just use R or P plates like Oz,NZ and up North. Easy for the Gardai to see if you're over the limit and if the do get caught have higher fines/less points for them.

Speed limiters won't work, look at all the Jap import cars that have the 180km/h limiters. They are nearly all removed before people drive them. Then you would have the fact that if cars are limited and if people remove the limiters the Gardai can't catch them. Remember the new Ambulance last year that was restricted to 85km/h and they had to send a 2nd Ambulance to get the kid to hospital. That was an offical goverment ambulance and health and safety wouldn't let then remove the limiter, why would they let the Gardai remove it?

Also you can do just as much damage at slow speed as fast speed, it just takes longer;)

Victor

Del2005 wrote:

Also you can do just as much damage at slow speed as fast speed, it just takes longer;)

Glib, not very funny and downright wrong.

For example, a 5km/h difference in your speed could be the difference between
life and death for a vulnerable road user such as a pedestrian.
Hit by a car at 60 km/h, 9 out of 10 pedestrians will be killed.
Hit by a car at 50 km/h, 5 out of 10 of pedestrians will be killed.
Hit by a car at 30 km/h, 1 out of 10 pedestrians will be killed.
Source RoSPA UK

Turbulent Bill

Hellrazer wrote:

The New Zealand government(I think it was NZ anyway) were toying with an idea like that a few years back where the system limited your speed depending on what "speed limit" was enforce in the area the vehicle was located.
Dont think it ever came to much though.

In my opinion it would be a good idea for "inexperienced" drivers or those with a certain number of penalty points to be fitted with some sort of system like the above.Most drivers on the roads are safe drivers.
But those that are already proven to be "bad" drivers should be penalised by having it fitted.

At this stage anything that saves life is worth it.

Something like the NZ system would be a good idea, I'm sure it wouldn't be too difficult to implement if the local authorities provided proper limit information to the GPS companies.

Adaptive speed limits will probably come into force, especially given the carnage on the N7/N9 recently, and in this case a limiter/notifier system could be very useful. Plenty of people are extremely poor at reading road conditions, and take the speed limit as their only guide.

peasant

A speed limiter that works either to a fixed value (say 80 kmh) or is adapted via GPS or whatever to the actual local limit at the time is a hare-brain idea.

three reasons:
No matter what the speed is limited to ...you can still go too fast for the conditions and might need to stay well under the limit ...fog being a prime example.

There are circumstances where only a decisive step onto the loud pedal will get you out of a sticky situation ..on-ramps on motorways / dual carriageways are such a place where sometimes you just need to move out of the way (of a thick headed merger that has no concept of safe spacing and distances and just ploughs in regardless) and braking is not the safest option ...if your already at the limit and your limiter kicks in while you're trying to get away ... crunch !

People will drive stupidly anyway ...they will try and overtake others that are 10 km/h under the limit, pull out, accelerate (or rather not) and suddenly find that they're limited to crawling alongside that big, long artic with no way out, no way back and traffic coming round the next distant bend.

Stark

land9 wrote:

:rolleyes:
Limiters should be compulsory with learner drivers - a lot of them just don't have any comprehension of speed.

I wonder if that silver ferrari had a limiter............:D

"Congratulations, you've passed. Now you get to break all the speed limits you want".

Turbulent Bill

peasant wrote:

A speed limiter that works either to a fixed value (say 80 kmh) or is adapted via GPS or whatever to the actual local limit at the time is a hare-brain idea.

three reasons:
No matter what the speed is limited to ...you can still go too fast for the conditions and might need to stay well under the limit ...fog being a prime example.

There are circumstances where only a decisive step onto the loud pedal will get you out of a sticky situation ..on-ramps on motorways / dual carriageways are such a place where sometimes you just need to move out of the way (of a thick headed merger that has no concept of safe spacing and distances and just ploughs in regardless) and braking is not the safest option ...if your already at the limit and your limiter kicks in while you're trying to get away ... crunch !

People will drive stupidly anyway ...they will try and overtake others that are 10 km/h under the limit, pull out, accelerate (or rather not) and suddenly find that they're limited to crawling alongside that big, long artic with no way out, no way back and traffic coming round the next distant bend.

I don't think it's that mad an idea. The adaptive limits should cater for poor conditions - this is one of the reasons for their use. I accept that sometimes you need to put the foot down to get out of a situation, but is usually a question of acceleration rather than outright speed. How often can you really do 120km/h in a motorway driving lane anyway (with traffic, road conditions etc.)?

People will continue to do stupid things at or below the speed limit, but why not limit their exposure to speed-related problems? Would you chance overtaking if you knew that you could only gain (at most) 10km/h?

Stark

Turbulent Bill wrote:

How often can you really do 120km/h in a motorway driving lane anyway (with traffic, road conditions etc.)?

I get to do 120km/hr in the driving lane on most motorways, even stretches of the M50 when it's quiet.

Marcus.Aurelius

Speed limiters in cars is a silly idea, if there were any accidents where cars failed the overtake because of the limiter, the importing company would be liable. Its too dangerous in itself!

blastman

land9 wrote:

drivers with less than 2 years experience are most likely to be involved in an accident and the majority of accidents are attributed to speed - limiting speed with inexperienced drivers should be introduced in this country.

end of discussion.

Hoping to get elected on May 24th? You'd make a fine TD.

layke

Land9 thinking restricting people will solve all of your problems is pointless, it won't. Your idea seems to me like a quick fix when we should be concentrating on how best to teach younger people how to drive correctly. What you should do if you feel the back end of your car sliding out, emergency braking procedures, driving in rain... none of this is covered.

I don't think you'll meet anyone else who has the same contempt for the driving test in Ireland as I do. It is a stupid test to see if you can drive like a granny for a day not how people actually drive.

If my car is allowed to go 80/100 KM/h I can still whip it around a corner at that speed, restricter won't help much there will it.