advertisement


Speed limiters, driver monitors to become mandatory in EU

Absolutely fantastic news! Can't come too soon.

There seems to be a plague of high performance cars is our area and it seems to be becoming normal to drive like total twats e.g. 70MPH+ in 30 and 40 limits, with noisy exhausts and lots of unnecessary popping and banging. So let's have noise polution laws enforced as well!

When this does come in, maybe they should increase the motorway limit to 80MPH, when it's quiet and with good visibility?
 
i'm sure you'll be able to switch it off on startup along with all the others - deactivate lane departure warning, deactivate traction control, lower suspension, deactivate auto start-stop, open the exhaust valve......etc

Mind you I am sure that all the button presses will be replaced by in-car Alexa commands. “Alexa deactivate nanny state” before too long
 
Whilst I’m largely in favour of this on safety grounds, Goverment intervention generally has unintended consequences. If all vehicles are limited to 70 mph on the motorway, this will massively decrease fuel consumption, causing a similar reduction in fuel duty received by the exchequer. Travelling at 80 / 85 mph uses a hell of a lot more fuel than at 70, whilst most of the time being perfectly safe. People will also buy cheaper, smaller engined cars, as there simply will not be any point owning anything ‘fast’. This is all good news on environmental grounds but again, will result in less VAT and revenue for the exchequer. Tax rises elsewhere then to plug the gap. Until the data is then used to charge motorists road tolls for every single journey they make...
 
So what does this do to the Supercar industry? I buy my new 202 mph Mclaren and it won't go above 70 mph in the UK so what's the point? By the way I think building cars that can do 202 mph is pretty ridiculous in the first place. How are Ferrari and Porsche going to respond to this?
 
I guess the ‘supercar’ market is pretty small anyway, but the only place there will be any point driving them will be on a track (if big brother allows this). For most people, it will be utterly pointless owning a car with any sort of performance.
 
So what does this do to the Supercar industry? I buy my new 202 mph Mclaren and it won't go above 70 mph in the UK so what's the point? By the way I think building cars that can do 202 mph is pretty ridiculous in the first place. How are Ferrari and Porsche going to respond to this?

Read the link - it uses a camera to read road signs and it can be overridden or switched off. I assume there are no 30mph signs on tracks ?
BTW cars already record/store a lot of data about the 60 seconds leading up to an accident - and for good reasons. If crash investigators need to know they will be able to determine throttle positions. accelerator and brake pedal positions, and I wouldn't doubt, steering wheel angle. No more bullshitting plod and relying on a lack of witnesses if you crash while having a little race while thinking noone is watching.

I see this as a useful driver's aid. Might prevent annoying speeding tickets getting caught out by changing limits on roads you're not familiar with.
 
Whilst I’m largely in favour of this on safety grounds, Goverment intervention generally has unintended consequences. If all vehicles are limited to 70 mph on the motorway, this will massively decrease fuel consumption, causing a similar reduction in fuel duty received by the exchequer.

Most people on the motorway aren't doing over 70 mph. I know this because at 70 I overtake far more cars than I get overtaken by - until about 18 months ago I was doing about 1,000 motorway miles a week, not it's down to a couple of hundred.
 
I didn't assume, I asked.

In any case, if you're not breaking the limit, not sure what your problem is.

"I take it" sounds more like an assumption than a question.

I spend plenty of time driving under the speed limit in built up areas, passing double parked cars, t & cross junctions, school times, bad visibility, poor conditions etc.

As someone posted earlier - it's the bunching effect speed limiters will have on for instance M ways that's going to cause problems.
 
I’m afraid the victims won’t have the luxury of choice when they’re six feet under* or discussing their move to disabled accommodation when they get home after three months in hospital*.
Last year I passed a lorry doing 55mph in a motorway exit lane, I was in lane 1 at 70mph closing on him. A car appeared in my mirror in the exit lane at an estimated 120mph, closing very fast. I thought “oh god, he’s not going to do it is he?”. The gap between me and the offside rear corner of the lorry was two car lengths- the guy passed through it at that speed. He didn’t even cross into lane 2 round me and the lorry. I’m not interested in dealing with the consequences of his choices- I want him to be prevented from making choices like that one. If he’d clipped my rear or front near side quarter at that speed he’d quite possibly have killed me and my passenger.

*people I actually knew.

you both missed 'if I did no harm'...obviously I don't approve of killing people and I don't drive like that, ever. I approve of choice and would prefer a world where even those less capable of making a 'good' choice (in who's opinion?) are offered the choice. That's how things did and should work. Every time the government or the EU or any one else adds something like this onto the statute books, we get number and number to the changes, accepting them more and more readily. Read Brave new World maybe. The same transponder that reads the road sigfn and slows down your car can (maybe is) also informing someone of your whereabouts, assessing your habits and lifestyle and sending you programmed targeted responses...and may one day be useable in law. What degree of lawbreaking is that ok for? Who here has never driven through an amber light, or, tired after work, done 32 through a 30?
In any case the more responsibilty we are asked to take on, the more capable of it we become. This is a moral issue really. All these things carry some risk and anyone who thinks that smart cars won't kill people is whistling dixie IMO.
 
Will this system run on GPS or Galileo, or will my Audi require a £2,000 dealer firmware upgrade when they switch from one to the other?

Or will our new-found freedom from the burgers of Brussels allow us to ignore all this?
 
With a national speed limit of 60/70MPH, isn't it already pointless to own a supercar?

Nothing to stop you getting to 70 mph very, very quickly. Or taking your car to Germany, where many roads are still without speed limit.

For the EU angle there are many cars currently limited to 155mph under EU accord. There is no way I could imagine that the German car industry will accept any EU directive to lower that further.
 
Most people on the motorway aren't doing over 70 mph. I know this because at 70 I overtake far more cars than I get overtaken by - until about 18 months ago I was doing about 1,000 motorway miles a week, not it's down to a couple of hundred.

I must travel on different motorways than you. I often find that unless I’m doing 85, I’m not keeping up with the flow of the traffic. I actually think there should be a minimum speed limit on motorways in the interests of safety.
 
Nothing to stop you getting to 70 mph very, very quickly.
Yes there is, actually. "Excessive acceleration" will get you a ticket if observed by Plod, a friend of mine has the fine and points to prove it. In a built up area, driving a Triumph GT6 sometime in the 90s. He gave it a squirt between 2 sets of lights that are only 50 yards apart or so, didn't exceed 30, didn't leave 1st gear I don't think, ticket.
 
Yes there is, actually. "Excessive acceleration" will get you a ticket if observed by Plod, a friend of mine has the fine and points to prove it. In a built up area, driving a Triumph GT6 sometime in the 90s. He gave it a squirt between 2 sets of lights that are only 50 yards apart or so, didn't exceed 30, didn't leave 1st gear I don't think, ticket.

I stand corrected vLooks like this maybe the catch-all as opposed to a specific offender in itself.

<<Driving without Reasonable Consideration

The offence of driving without reasonable consideration under section 3 of the RTA 1988 is committed only when other persons are inconvenienced by the manner of the defendants driving, see section 3ZA(4) RTA 1988.

The maximum penalty is a level 5 fine. The court must also either endorse the drivers licence with between 3 and 9 penalty points (unless there are "special reasons" not to do so), or impose disqualification for a fixed period and/or until a driving test has been passed. The penalty is the same as for driving without due care and attention.

A driving without due consideration charge is more appropriate where the inconvenience is aimed at and suffered by other road users.

Note the essential difference between the two offences under section 3 of the RTA 1988 is that in cases of careless driving the prosecution need not show that any other person was inconvenienced. In cases of inconsiderate driving, there must be evidence that some other user of the road or public place was actually inconvenienced; Dilks v Bowman-Shaw [1981] RTR 4 DC

This offence is appropriate when the driving amounts to a clear act of incompetence, selfishness, impatience or aggressiveness in addition to some other inconvenience to road users. The following examples are typical of actions likely to be regarded as inconsiderate driving:

flashing of lights to force other drivers in front to give way;
misuse of any lane (including cycling lanes) to avoid queuing or gain some other advantage over other drivers;
unnecessarily remaining in an overtaking lane;
unnecessarily slow driving or braking without good cause;
driving with un-dipped headlights which dazzle oncoming drivers, cyclists or pedestrians;
driving through a puddle causing pedestrians to be splashed;
driving a bus in such a way as to alarm passengers.

Prosecutors must decide which version of the offence to charge as the section creates two separate offences and there is no alternative verdict provision in the magistrates/youth court: R v Surrey Justices, ex parte Witherick [1932] 1 K.B. 340.

CPS website. >>

Although the PH folk can’t agree on that:

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=10&t=1524911
 
Porsche going to respond to this

my Porsche already has a speed limiter, i use it regularly and it works well. I suspect the new legislation will have it working similar to existing speed limiters - maybe now it will be switched on from ignition, but able to be deactivated, like the auto stop-start, the lane departure assist warning, traction control etc.....

My Porsche is limited to 155mph under EU accords - but the driver controllable limiter enables me to switch in a limiter which is very useful on smart motorways

burgers of Brussels allow us to ignore all this?

apparently we will be accepting this regardless of Brexit status.
 
With a national speed limit of 60/70MPH, isn't it already pointless to own a supercar?
I’ve never owned a supercar, however I have owned a TVR Griff, a Porsche 996 Turbo, a BMW M3, a Volvo S60R, a VW Golf R32 and a BMW Z4M, I’ve largely enjoyed them within the bounds of the law and I’ve never had as much as a parking ticket, let alone a speeding ticket. I don’t need a speed limiter on any car... however, I think anyone with over say 9 points should have a monitoring device, certainly people freshly off a driving ban should.
 
With a national speed limit of 60/70MPH, isn't it already pointless to own a supercar?

Yes, unless it's just for posing, or you take it to a track. If you only drive on the public roads a supercar is utterly pointless IMO.
 


advertisement


Back
Top