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I think your whole premise here is, North American speed limits would go up if only we had enough cars that felt good at higher speeds? If so, I don't think au

by dcwca 8y ago

I think your whole premise here is, North American speed limits would go up if only we had enough cars that felt good at higher speeds? If so, I don't think automotive performance and lack of "smooth feel" at high speed are the things governing our speed limits.

013a 8y ago
No; my premise is that the smoothness and reliability at high speeds is the result of an environment which put demands on German auto manufacturers to develop cars which could handle the high speeds. Volvo is artificially creating an internal environment of lower speeds, which means their technology, hardware and software, won't be designed or at least optimized to work at high speeds. Moreover, they're asserting to the public that slower speeds are safer, which is generally true but also regressive and a vast over-simplification of the situation. We should be celebrating companies which push the limits of assistive technology to make high speeds safer; this can only be done by companies who optimize around high speeds and have cars on the road gathering data at high speed. This conclusion is evidenced by the fact that similarly priced German and Japanese/American cars drive totally differently at high speeds, because German cars are designed to run at high speeds. The environment and corporate policy matters, a lot. The reason our speed limits in America are generally low isn't really because of road feel or reliability at speed or any of that. Its more complex. But one step in a positive direction is definitely having more cars on the road with companies behind them who say "the cameras on this thing? they can detect a stopped car 300 meters out and take progressive action without any human intervention." Over time, we might see change. Or not. But that's a necessary factor. On the other hand, Volvo is saying "don't drive faster than 112mph! that's dangerous, no one should ever do that and we'll never support it on our consumer cars" which is regressive. We can do better; we just need people and companies to Want to.

by dcwca 8y ago

013a 8y ago

No; my premise is that the smoothness and reliability at high speeds is the result of an environment which put demands on German auto manufacturers to develop cars which could handle the high speeds. Volvo is artificially creating an internal environment of lower speeds, which means their technology, hardware and software, won't be designed or at least optimized to work at high speeds. Moreover, they're asserting to the public that slower speeds are safer, which is generally true but also regressive and a vast over-simplification of the situation. We should be celebrating companies which push the limits of assistive technology to make high speeds safer; this can only be done by companies who optimize around high speeds and have cars on the road gathering data at high speed. This conclusion is evidenced by the fact that similarly priced German and Japanese/American cars drive totally differently at high speeds, because German cars are designed to run at high speeds. The environment and corporate policy matters, a lot. The reason our speed limits in America are generally low isn't really because of road feel or reliability at speed or any of that. Its more complex. But one step in a positive direction is definitely having more cars on the road with companies behind them who say "the cameras on this thing? they can detect a stopped car 300 meters out and take progressive action without any human intervention." Over time, we might see change. Or not. But that's a necessary factor. On the other hand, Volvo is saying "don't drive faster than 112mph! that's dangerous, no one should ever do that and we'll never support it on our consumer cars" which is regressive. We can do better; we just need people and companies to Want to.