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Comment by mnm1 | Hacker News Reader

Why not limit just fossil fuel vehicles then? That would encourage adoption of electric vehicles while keeping the freedom of the autobahn and reducing emissions just as much.

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Can you imagine the traffic hazard when electrics going 200 come up on ICEs at 120? That’ll not be fun to see in action.

It can happen on the Autobahn today. Stay out of the passing lane.

Which in future will be called the "rich men lane".

It is rich men lane. A car matter now.

What does gender have to do with wealth? And if we're talking cars going 200, aren't we already talking wealthy people even today?

No, cars going more than 200km/h are widely available, even small or mid-range models.

Approximately 90% of billionaires are male. It seems to have quite a lot to do with gender.

Most modern middle class cars can go faster than 200. And you do not see many women going faster than 160km/h on the Autobahn (my personal observation).

If only 2% of autos sold are electric, that’s a lot of cars in the slow lane.

You can bet that 2% will go up fast after a law like this would be passed. It makes a lot of sense actually.

It up to faster car to not hit slower one.

> 200 come up on ICEs at 120?

This happens to me regularly, and I'm not even living in Germany and driving on the Autobahn, I'm just living a little further to the East where the police is less rigorous in pursuing this type of traffic infractions. As long as you use the passing lane only when needed you're fine, nothing bad happens.

Going 200 in an electric car will be a great learning experience for the relationship of drag and speed.

Have you driven the Autobahn before? This is quite normal Delta in speeds. Everyone is generally aware and slow vehicles promptly move to the right.

If 98% of cars today are ICE and this is implemented, it's going to create a hazardous condition.

Again, it's normal for the unrestricted part of the Autobahn. Unlike the US, German drivers are very serious about Rechtsfahren -- "Keep right".

You’re implying 98% of cars are going to occupy one lane and then 2% will use the passing lane and that’ll be just fine? That’s not very efficient.

This is exactly how the Autobahn works today and it is indeed fine.

When there's a 80 km/hr speed difference (or even 200 km/hr) between the lanes, it's the only way to be safe.

https://youtu.be/ys7HutH54No?t=111

Again, this is normal for the Autobahn. All the bad behaviors you see on US roads (left-lane hogging, passing on the right) will get you an expensive ticket there.

I think for this to work, non-electric vehicles would need to be banned from the Autobahn completely.

That's not something I'd necessarily be opposed to in the future, but we need to get WAY more electric cars into use first.

Maybe that will create different classes of vehicles traveling at vastly different speeds sharing the same road. The benefit to the electric car driver may not outweigh the additional cognitive load and risk of collision from the presence of slower vehicles.

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