New cars to be fitted with automatic speed limiters across Europe from this week | Hacker News Reader

New cars to be fitted with automatic speed limiters across Europe from this week

lbc.co.uk

21 pointsscarface_7424 comments

That is a very bad law in my opinion. Ok, the effect for safety is not bad.

But that is another thing that will raise the minimal price for base cars. Now you will be forced to have a gps, caméra, dedicated computer,... to detect the speed limits that can vary a lot from one place to another.

In addition with the price, that means more parts that can cause issues with your car in case of malfunctions and a whole lot of frustration when the system will regularly wrongly detect incorrect speed limits.

Finally, one way or another, this will push cars to always have gps and uplink with internet or equivalent, and that will be very bad for privacy. Just think that you will have everything needed for the next step of your insurance premium based on your driving stats being kind of mandatory.

This is just one of the steps towards taxing you for how far you drive

Towards? Some places, like Utah[1], are already doing it!

[1] https://www.deseret.com/utah/2021/6/5/22443979/legislature-u...

I find that most of the time when I do it, I speed because I am either unaware of the speed limit or my speed drifts slowly above it.

The techniques described in the article, such as audio, visual, or haptic feedback when reaching the speed limit or maintaining speed at the limit sound useful and a solution to the above.

Most critics interpret the article as the car taking over the decision-making - but that does not seem to be the case at all.

More a minor than a major nuisance:

In the EU, drivers will be able to turn off the system every time they start their car. It cannot be permanently shut off.

It’s like that asinine auto engine start-stop feature in some cars. Soon there will be a whole host of buttons you have to press every time you start your car just to drive normally.

I'm sure those things can be hacked though. A car is a computer these days.

Probably can even be turned off with the dealer programming software which can be bought bootlegged from AliExpress. Eg by setting the country code to a non EU country. I had it for my Volvo when I still had a car, it was really handy to reset maintenance warning lights before going to the yearly inspection too. Otherwise they'd insta fail it on that.

I don't normally speed but I'd want to have the option in case I get into a dangerous situation. Sometimes the best way out of such a situation is forward as fast as possible. Especially on the motorway.

I'd like such a limiter to act like a 'detent' in the throttle but still allow me to override it like a kickdown on an automatic.

That feature saves fuel, and only produces minimal wear and tear. I wish all cars had it.

It's annoying as hell. It's my car. Just let me turn the damn thing off permanently.

It's there so others won't have to breath your exhaust when standing still. I'd be annoyed as hell if you could turn it off.

There is no way it produces only minimal wear. But some cars (like my newish Honda Odyssey) the auto-off feature is SOOO annoying.

I pull into a parking space and press the break, car shuts off, I put the car into park, the car turns back on, then I turn off the engine manually. Like what malicious engineer came up with that flow!?

It's truly horrible and annoying. It's also a safety concern. Sometimes if I need to make a turn across fast traffic, I can't tolerate even a second of unexpected delay.

Is it all true, though? It wouldn't be the first time I see an English magazine exaggerating some news just to make fun of silly Europeans.

All sources I've read mention a wider range of possibilities than represented by TFA. Most car makers opted for acoustic or haptic warning, while active correction of driver's maneuvers is always opt-in.

Remote engine shutdown next.

If cyberpunk 2077 was anything to go by, self destruct will follow that

Would love to see someone propose this here in the States, the headlines out of the South would be pure gold.

This is stupid. What if you need to speed away from a dangerous situation?

I expect there will be increased amount of accidents and this law maybe be reversed.

This is one thing that would never happen in biden's America. Thank god for freedom.

California is working on a "passive speed limiter" law. It's basically just a verbal warning that the driver has exceeded the posted speed limit by 10+ mph.

https://www.roadandtrack.com/news/a60871999/california-passi...

My last 3 cars have had this feature and there are more false positives than not because none of them had a perfect map of the speed limits, so they'd often get triggered in places where I was not speeding, or they get triggered on a Saturday when you're driving through a "__MPH Speed Limit when children are present" zone.

Maybe you should thank the founding fathers instead.

Yes, Mr. Putin

Somehow, no matter how bad things get in North America, Europe manages to give worse

Absolutely not. Good thing I only buy used cars - driving, for me, is a joy (not in traffic, for obvious reasons). I like driving fast when conditions are right, and I see no issue going full throttle it if it’s done safely.

Interestingly, in Europe (where this regulation is being implemented), there are roads that are engineered to allow high speed driving and in places allow unlimited speed. Over here, it is pretty much impossible and the 100-120km/h speed limits on most highways are a trade off between safety and geography. It isn't a nice surprise to have an 80kg animal leap out in front of your car while you were 'safely' scanning the road some distance ahead. And because of socialized health care, we each have an economic interest in other people's safe driving. The areas over here with unlimited speeds are also interesting, as they are so remote and dead straight. Safe there is more about endurance than reflex, and understanding rarely understood facts about perception like how you need to move your eyes and head so you actually see objects heading directly towards you.

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