Incompetents (Part Two)
Posted: Wed 27 March, 2019 Filed under: Cynicism, Domestic, Driving, Thoughts, Travel, Weirdness 5 Comments »Following on from the other post about people (or at least politicians) not thinking things through, the other one is/was about the EU’s new plan for all new cars to be fitted with speed limiters from 2022.
Speed limiters are – in some circumstances – a really good idea. If the limiting was in place for areas with lower speed limits – the areas with speed limits of 20,30, 40, and perhaps even 50mph – then that would be good. I see so many people speeding in those areas. I still think it’d have its problems, but this would at least help. (I’ve said before that I have my reservations on this in the 50mph average speed limit areas currently in place on a lot of motorway work areas)
If, however, it’s something that is brought in universally, for all roads at all limits, then it’s idiotic – and again, shows a lack of understanding when it comes to people, business, cars, driving, and umpteen other things.
The first thing that occurred to me when I heard this was that a goodly portion of police (or council) funding is generated or paid for via speeding fines and the like. If speeding is hugely reduced by automation and limiters, where will that money and funding be coming from?
For another thing, if everything is limited to the national speed limit, it’ll reduce people’s desire/drive to pay more for larger/faster vehicles. If you can get a basic [car model] that’ll do everything and can go up to the speed limit where it’s limited, why would you pay two or three times the price for a performance version of the same [car model] that can’t do anything extra, that can’t go faster or perform better? (Personally I don’t see much point in these super-performance models anyway, but that’s not the point here)
Again, I like the idea of auto-limiting speeds/cars in slower and busier areas. But making it a universal solution seems to have missed a fair number of knock-on issues, with no clues or hints about how to actually fix them.
Do you buy cars based on how fast they can go?
I’d warrant that most people buy them for the features they have inside, heated seats, DAB radio, etc, which have feck all to do with speed.
No, I don’t.
But a lot of people do seem to go for the sportier higher-end models (the STs, the M-series, the FRs and R+s) rather than ‘run of the mill’. While some of that may be about the spec of the interiors etc., I don’t think it all is – they want the faster, sportier versions (even if they can’t actually drive the cocking things) for whatever reason.
And with those higher-end/sportier ones, it’s definitely *not* for the increased comfort 🙂
Just wait until the only choice is electric cars… then it will be a completely different problem.
I can think of a handful of times when having a car with good acceleration got me away from another driver’s bad driving, and saved an accident. This will be impossible with speed limiters.
Yep, totally agree.
Supposedly the limiters will have some kind of bypass button to allow for that kind of scenario, but who knows. (And of course if it’s bypassable, it won’t be long ’til someone figures how to put it on permanent bypass…)
As for Electric cars, that’ll be interesting if only for the infrastructure side – for myself, I park on the street outside my house, and there’s no place (or way) to charge it safely overnight. The assumption that everyone has a private/safe space to allow for car charging is… short-sighted, to say the least.
Electric cars will wreck the national grid.
That is the biggest problem. Worries about charging systems, charging points, insecure charging etc pale into insignificance beside this.