More speed can also be safer in some scenarios
If the speed limit is 60MPH, and everyone is driving 80MPH, it is safer to drive 80MPH than to drive the speed limit and get hit from behind by someone going 20MPH faster than you.
Of course, every single person driving 80MPH in this scenario is breaking the law (in most states this is reckless driving), and making the road less safe for everyone, especially motorist obeying the law. The status quo isn't great if we just accept that everyone has to drive recklessly because the people around them are. That's a problem in need of a solution - a solution that can include mandatory speed governors and geo-fencing.
If you require governors and geo-fencing, the condition of "everyone is driving 20MPH over the limit" doesn't exist, because everyone's cars will be capped at the legal speed limit. Driving with traffic will only entail speeds up to the speed limit, not up to the fastest speed that drivers around you feel like driving.
Thus why I said that regulators would have to go all-in on this technology, rather than allowing slow roll-out, because a transition period would make the roads more dangerous allowing older vehicles to drive recklessly fast while not allowing newer vehicles to safely drive according to road conditions (created by reckless drivers).
If everyone is going 80 mph, then being the one driver actually obeying the 65 mph speed limit puts you and everyone around you in MORE danger.
Would it be safer for everyone to be going 65 mph? Absolutely. I'm definitely not disputing that.
But speed differential is more dangerous than speed itself.
EDIT: To be more accurate, speed differential makes crashes more likely, but speed overall obviously makes the crashes more likely to be fatal. Whether it's safer to go 80 when everyone is going 80 to reduce the likelyhood of a crash, or if it's safer to go 65 mph to reduce the severity of a crash if it happens is very debatable, and I'm not sure there are good enough statistics to back up either claim.
There is a reason there are speed limits. They are the cutoff.
Completely irrelevant to my scenario. Let me try to be more clear.
If everyone is driving 65 mph, then the person driving 80 mph is in the wrong.
If everyone is driving 80 mph, then the person driving 65 mph is in the wrong.
https://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/speedmgt/ref_mats/fhwasa1304/Res...
Edit: It appears the source above is for pedestrian collisions in kph. However speeding is a factor in 1/3 of traffic fatalities.
https://www.nhtsa.gov/press-releases/speed-campaign-speeding...
If EVERYONE is driving 80 mph, is it more dangerous to be the one person deciding to drive 65 mph?
Most studies and statistics either focus on speed alone OR being the ONE person driving 80 while everyone else is driving 65.
Speed differential increases the frequency of crashes, and overall speed makes crashes worse. I posit that the best crash is the one that doesn't happen, so reducing the frequency of a crash by going with the flow of traffic is the safer option.