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Comment by techpression | Hacker News Reader

Whoever came up with the idea that the car should beep loudly even close to the speed limit has clearly never driven a car. The best way to silence it is to constantly be over the speed limit or well below.

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Probably made worse by the fact that _every_ VW brand car I’ve driven has read about 10% high on the speedometer. I think I’m going 100 kph, but timing using the km markers on the highway show I’m going about 90.

When I talked to the dealers, they said that the speedometers only have to be accurate +/- 10% according to the SAE specifications.

After DieselGate I assumed that the high reading was to game the fuel consumption game.

Never again, VW auto group…

Just use the speed reported by your GPS. Most navigation apps show the GPS-based speed.

A little nice thing the cars could do is automatically calibrate the speedometer from GPS when on a long stretch of a road. You would get the accuracy of GPS and the reliability of speedometer even when in city jungle, underground, during slow speed manoeuvres etc.

I have a GTI and with cruise control on, the speedo and my phone's gps reads exactly the same speed.

I have a Audi A3, speedometer reads ~6km/h too high compared to GPS and various "speed-showing signs" I've driven past.

My 18 year old A3 reads about 1mph higher than the true speed at motorway speeds. It's pretty spot-on, which is very unusual.

Ah, mine is quite precisely 10 years younger, and also European if that matters, sounds like yours might be Mexican if it's in the US unless I'm mistaken. I guess there is some tuning process at the end of fabrication/production, maybe just "wild luck" either way.

I believe the only Audi car made in Mexico is the Q5. My US model 2025 A3, btw, is dead on (+/- 1 mph).

> When I talked to the dealers, they said that the speedometers only have to be accurate +/- 10% according to the SAE specifications.

I believe the requirement is only one way - they can read high by a certain % but they cannot read low. Which makes sense. But that means in reality they will usually read a little high.

Wow TIL. I have observed that my rental cars in Europe all have faulty speedometer. Multiple brands, multiple countries. So this is why.

Was in an Uber in Korea recently traveling from the airport and the car literally beeped every 30 seconds for the entirety of the one hour drive with what presumably was a speed limit warning - a beep AND a verbal message. Seemed to be only marginally over the limit. Drove me insane. I don't know how the driver dealt with it - he must experience it all day every day.

I guess you just filter it out after a while but it definitely makes me think I need to do some research before getting a new car any time soon.

Well, just don't drive fast than the speed limit and nothing will beep at you. Simple as that.

Positive side effect: No expensive photos will be taken, too.

Yes, let’s make people focus less on the road and instead worrying about 1km/h speeding. And where I live expensive photos are only taken way way later than the car starts beeping. It’s the real life equivalent of the cookie banner.

Each km/h over the speed limit can decide between coming to a stop at the right moment or killing somebody. Don't try to put it into the wrong perspective. The beeping is fine.

No, good driving, which includes focusing does that. People hit other people in the parking lot. There’s a reason some countries have significant higher death counts in traffic and no amount of beeping will change that.

This thing makes me crazy. But I can somehow ignore my Skoda’s whining. The other car was bought months before this regulation happened and I will keep it as long as I can.

Wait what brand does that? I need to know what car to not buy.

Every new car sold in the EU. Most make it easy to turn off but it does default to on when you start the car.

That’s terrible. Means I better drive my old Ford long enough for them to fix that ridiculous regulation.

I don't see them fixing it, in fact I wouldn't be surprised if they doubled down and restricted the cars speed according to the local limits.

Sometimes the camera will pick up speed limit signs that only apply for the exit lane or just an adjacent road. If cars were to suddenly break based on those it would be quite dangerous.

There's a precise spot where the camera picks up a speed sign, every single time. There is no speed sign at all there. It must be some AI hallucination.

I always assumed it was GPS based rather than using cameras.

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