A simple question

[crackberry]

Originally Posted by erhanh

I saw one pulled over the other day... How embarrasing to get pulled over in a prius

haha! smug pricks. dont they know that speeding lowers your mpg?

[mkoesel]

Originally Posted by Nelrock

Slippery slope. A car can kill even when operated legally.
Think this would be akin to suing a weapon maker over somebody using their weapon in an illegal manner.

True, it is a gray area.

But as the OP points out, a car is able to much faster than the law would allow. I am no lawyer, but I suspect that there have been cases in the past where someone has sued and won because a product was grossly overly-capable for the task it is advertised to do and for what it is intended to be used for.

[mkoesel]

Originally Posted by ersin

Is there any car that cannot do 80+ mph?

Oh yeah, maybe a Prius.

A Prius will go 90mph - I see them doing it all the time. It seems to me a lot of guys' wives buy these and then they have major inferiority complexes when driving. That and some women are just maniacs too. Great way to completely negate the benefits of the hybrid drive.

Probably some of those funkly little electric cars from really small manufacturers can't go 80mph. Even the Nissan Leaf can barely crack 100mph IIRC.

[Legion5]

Originally Posted by KIS

While reading the most recent thread on speeding and the very predictable responses by both the nannies on this forum as well as the guys with their hair on fire. Why is it legal to have cars that can easily exceed 80 mph? With technology you can manufacture cars that are limited to 80 mph on public roads, and that have gps that would eliminate the speed governor when you're on a recognized track. My point is simple. When you allow manufacturers to produce cars that can easily triple most speed limits, why are you surprised when people actually do it?

#1 Speed limit laws are constantly changing, my state recently increased the limit 5mph past what was the absolute maximum a few years ago. If you designed cars that have a maximum limit that is relativly low this would possibly make them obsolete in the near future.

#2 New tracks are constantly being built, and people constantly hold autocross and special events on private property where you are supposed to exceed the speed limit substantilly. If manufacuters added a GPS based speed limit governor it wouldn't future proof the car or allow it to work in special events.

#3 Speeds that are greater than 80 mph, say 100 mph may be nessesary in emergency situations, if you set the speed governor to an unreasonably low limit that would case problems.

#4 Despite speed limits it's generally accepted that everyone goes faster than the limit on the interstate and cops wholeheartedly approve of it and never pull anyone over unless they're going riduclously fast, which makes it a gray area depending on how strict your state enforces the law. Some states espetially with wide open spaces tend to have very lax laws.

#5 Some states don't have maximum speed limits so it makes no sense to limit them if the upper limit is anything that's safe and this is a free country where we can travel from state to state.

The vast majority of cars that are caught for substantially exceeding the speed limit are not fast cars, but slow ones like honda civics. Cops will back this up. While once in a while you'll get a street racer generally the worst speeders are regular people in boring cars. What we can conclude from this is that fast cars aren't responsible for speeding irresponsible people are so it doesn't matter if we make fast cars or not.

I'm a race trained driver, and I'm used to going 0-100 in 4 seconds and pulling 4g in the corners so anything on the street is as slow as a semi truck to me. The reason I own fast cars is so that I don't have anemic acceleration. I haven't gotten a speeding ticket in 6 years. Not one. My weekend car has 800 hp and can reach just under 230 mph though.

[Nelrock]

Originally Posted by KIS

I appreciate the feedback, and please understand I am not advocating more government regulation. My point is simple, if speeding is illegal (and it is); why allow manufacturers to sell cars that go 3 times the legal limit on public roads? This isn't about education, or responsibility, or sobriety, it is about common sense. Let me give another example, while you can own a sub machine gun, you must have the proper license to do so. It is very difficult to obtain this license and strictly monitored by the ATF. Consequently, very few people have machine guns in their homes. Again, speeding is not a judgement call, it is against the law, so why is it legal to sell cars that can easily exceed the speed limit?

Laws are only for the law abiding. How many people illegal sub machine guns?
Even if manufacturerers made a special edition of the vehicles they make for the U.S...ones that can't, as you say, easily exceed the speed limit...don't you think people would own ones that can illegally? Or modify their car (ala making a semi-auto gun and auto) so they can?

[KIS]

Originally Posted by Nelrock

Laws are only for the law abiding. How many people illegal sub machine guns?
Even if manufacturerers made a special edition of the vehicles they make for the U.S...ones that can't, as you say, easily exceed the speed limit...don't you think people would own ones that can illegally? Or modify their car (ala making a semi-auto gun and auto) so they can?

Using that logic we wouldn't have any laws because some will always break them. The gps coding would address the various speed limits both in the USA and abroad.

[KIS]

Originally Posted by Legion5

#1 Speed limit laws are constantly changing, my state recently increased the limit 5mph past what was the absolute maximum a few years ago. If you designed cars that have a maximum limit that is relativly low this would possibly make them obsolete in the near future.

#2 New tracks are constantly being built, and people constantly hold autocross and special events on private property where you are supposed to exceed the speed limit substantilly. If manufacuters added a GPS based speed limit governor it wouldn't future proof the car or allow it to work in special events.

#3 Speeds that are greater than 80 mph, say 100 mph may be nessesary in emergency situations, if you set the speed governor to an unreasonably low limit that would case problems.

#4 Despite speed limits it's generally accepted that everyone goes faster than the limit on the interstate and cops wholeheartedly approve of it and never pull anyone over unless they're going riduclously fast, which makes it a gray area depending on how strict your state enforces the law. Some states espetially with wide open spaces tend to have very lax laws.

#5 Some states don't have maximum speed limits so it makes no sense to limit them if the upper limit is anything that's safe and this is a free country where we can travel from state to state.

The vast majority of cars that are caught for substantially exceeding the speed limit are not fast cars, but slow ones like honda civics. Cops will back this up. While once in a while you'll get a street racer generally the worst speeders are regular people in boring cars. What we can conclude from this is that fast cars aren't responsible for speeding irresponsible people are so it doesn't matter if we make fast cars or not.

I'm a race trained driver, and I'm used to going 0-100 in 4 seconds and pulling 4g in the corners so anything on the street is as slow as a semi truck to me. The reason I own fast cars is so that I don't have anemic acceleration. I haven't gotten a speeding ticket in 6 years. Not one. My weekend car has 800 hp and can reach just under 230 mph though.

The ability to speed in emergency circumstances is your best point, but the lives saved by everyone driving substantially slower would far outweigh this argument.

[ksoze]

Originally Posted by KIS

The gps coding would address the various speed limits both in the USA and abroad.

Much issues with that plan...see George Orwell. Besides the obvious privacy issues, who gets ticketed the car or the driver? All for curbing traffic violations, but limiting or monitoring personal freedom as a short cut to law enforcement is a slippery slope.

[mdosu]

Originally Posted by erhanh

I believe the GTR in Japan has this future where the speed is limited to something like 120mph on the public roads. When you take it to track, it knows (gps), and removes the limiter.

To respond your question: There are hundreds of things that can be used in dangerous ways but are normally allowed (the list includes even guns). So cars are not the problem. Education is the problem. I took my driver license in about 10minutes here in the states. Drive around for about half a mile, stop at stop sign, stop at red light, back-up in an empty street (not even paralel parking). That was it.

+1, it much harder, expense, and time consuming obtaining a drivers license in Europe. No wonder people drive more responsibily. The law I really want enforced is the cell phone law. They should have their license suspended on 2nd incident

[Nelrock]

Originally Posted by KIS

The ability to speed in emergency circumstances is your best point, but the lives saved by everyone driving substantially slower would far outweigh this argument.

You can die just as easily going 55mph as you can at 80mph.

[KIS]

Originally Posted by Nelrock

You can die just as easily going 55mph as you can at 80mph.

Actually I think it is easier to die at higher speeds. In an extreme example it is safer to travel at 25 mph than 55 mph. Of course this is observational on my part.

[KIS]

Originally Posted by ksoze

Much issues with that plan...see George Orwell. Besides the obvious privacy issues, who gets ticketed the car or the driver? All for curbing traffic violations, but limiting or monitoring personal freedom as a short cut to law enforcement is a slippery slope.

I was referring to programing the various maximum speeds that the car could attain based on it's location.