4 ms·

Do you have any evidence for this that isn't just conjecture, though? I think there are millions of parents that would love to get a car that obeys traffic laws

Do you have any evidence for this that isn't just conjecture, though? I think there are millions of parents that would love to get a car that obeys traffic laws for their children. The peace of mind would be immense, and that's on top of the existing entries in the market that allow you to view live location and speed and even set preferences for radio volume and acceleration rate. > Nobody here would buy a car that prevents the driver from making mistakes. Almost every new car today comes with adaptive cruise control, autonomous lane-keeping, augmented backup cameras, lane-change and backup alarms, etc. I don't see why a better version wouldn't sell just as well.

derekp7 6y ago
And collision avoidance. Which is a highly desirable feature. I would also love to have a dashboard device that alerts me whenever I exceed the speed limit by some threshold. Practically any ticket I've gotten as an adult was due to inadvertently exceeding the speed limit (driving in a 45 zone, then hit a 30 zone for two blocks).
- sandworm101 6y ago
  >> that alerts me whenever I exceed the speed limit by some threshold But would you buy a car that hits the brakes at the speed limit? Not an alert. An actual limiter that you cannot bypass.
  - nexuist 6y ago
    This is an unfair premise because it implies that breaking the speed limit is always unsafe. This is flat out not true; millions of drivers break the speed limit every day and have never or will never face the consequences. Out of various dangerous acts, speeding certainly counts as one, but it is not as fatal as, say, playing with firearms. There are plenty of valid reasons to speed: * (Most common) The actual speed limit is way too slow for what the road conditions are, and everyone would suffer if they followed it * You are trying to overtake a truck and avoid their blind spot (I have done this; the less time spent next to a truck, the less anxiety you feel) * An emergency vehicle is behind you and you need to speed up to overtake a car in the other lane so you can lane-change and make way for the vehicle (State v. Brown) * Everyone around you is speeding; going slower is more dangerous because people need to lane change to get around you * You are trying to make some space between some kind of maniac driver who you believe will soon lose control and hit you (I have done this to get away from drunk drivers) * Your loved one is experiencing a medical emergency and you need to get to the hospital * You are being chased by some kind of criminal or terrorist * You are avoiding a natural disaster such as a rockslide, tornado, flood, or avalanche Realistically, will you ever be driving away from a rockslide or sedan terrorist? Probably not, but with a regular car, you at least have options to exercise if you ever are in that spot; with a limiter those opportunities are gone. In the case of a limiter, a mis-configured or broken speedometer or sensor can give false readings that severely inhibit your driving, even while driving, which could cause an accident if your vehicle slams the brakes without warning. It could also prevent you from using highways if your vehicle is not capable of accelerating past 40mph. This is the same argument against self driving cars; humans want control to keep themselves safe, not so they can be dangerous.
    - cutemonster 6y ago
      > ... Everyone around you is speeding; going slower is more dangerous Yes those things can happen, however the car can allow the driver to go say 15 km/h faster, doesn't need to slow down at +0.01 above the limits. Some people frequently go 30 km too fast... On 30 km roads in areas with children
- nexuist 6y ago
  Actually, a bit of a gruesome idea I had was to look at NHTSA crash records and calculate the average probability of death at various speeds in my vehicle (Nissan Xterra). As you speed up and break the speed limit, a little % icon on the dashboard rises to indicate how likely you are to die if something goes wrong. I think the emotional impact of staring your fatality chances in the face as they steadily rise might encourage safer behavior for our monkey brains.
  - cutemonster 6y ago
    Gruesome? I'd say possibly life saving :-)
sandworm101 6y ago
There has been market research on this going back decades. Setting aside all the latest tech: Would anyone in america buy a car that would not allow the driver to break the speed limit? That was proposed decades ago and could be done with a simple clockwork mechanism to limit the throttle once the car hit 70mph. People are fine with an optional adaptive cruise control because they can ignore it. They aren't OK with a system that actively disallows behavior. There was another interesting proposal: Lights/sirens that automatically turn on when the police/ambulance/firetruck breaks the speed limit. Again, no takers.
- pandaman 6y ago
  "Not breaking speed limit" and "driving by the rules" are different things. If you are passing on a two lane road without breaking speed limit then you are actually breaking the rules by creating a dangerous situation. This is why propositions to set governor to the maximum speed limit won't fly. However, people do want features like ESC, which can effectively limit your speed much lower than the posted speed limit if the road conditions do not allow higher speed. Same with collision avoidance system that do not allow to drive into obstacles and pedestrians, I don't think anybody opposes them. So I think more complex safety behaviors would have their market just as long as they actually improve safety and are not dangerous knee-jerk solutions in search of a problem.

derekp7 6y ago

And collision avoidance. Which is a highly desirable feature. I would also love to have a dashboard device that alerts me whenever I exceed the speed limit by some threshold. Practically any ticket I've gotten as an adult was due to inadvertently exceeding the speed limit (driving in a 45 zone, then hit a 30 zone for two blocks).

sandworm101 6y ago
>> that alerts me whenever I exceed the speed limit by some threshold But would you buy a car that hits the brakes at the speed limit? Not an alert. An actual limiter that you cannot bypass.
- nexuist 6y ago
  This is an unfair premise because it implies that breaking the speed limit is always unsafe. This is flat out not true; millions of drivers break the speed limit every day and have never or will never face the consequences. Out of various dangerous acts, speeding certainly counts as one, but it is not as fatal as, say, playing with firearms. There are plenty of valid reasons to speed: * (Most common) The actual speed limit is way too slow for what the road conditions are, and everyone would suffer if they followed it * You are trying to overtake a truck and avoid their blind spot (I have done this; the less time spent next to a truck, the less anxiety you feel) * An emergency vehicle is behind you and you need to speed up to overtake a car in the other lane so you can lane-change and make way for the vehicle (State v. Brown) * Everyone around you is speeding; going slower is more dangerous because people need to lane change to get around you * You are trying to make some space between some kind of maniac driver who you believe will soon lose control and hit you (I have done this to get away from drunk drivers) * Your loved one is experiencing a medical emergency and you need to get to the hospital * You are being chased by some kind of criminal or terrorist * You are avoiding a natural disaster such as a rockslide, tornado, flood, or avalanche Realistically, will you ever be driving away from a rockslide or sedan terrorist? Probably not, but with a regular car, you at least have options to exercise if you ever are in that spot; with a limiter those opportunities are gone. In the case of a limiter, a mis-configured or broken speedometer or sensor can give false readings that severely inhibit your driving, even while driving, which could cause an accident if your vehicle slams the brakes without warning. It could also prevent you from using highways if your vehicle is not capable of accelerating past 40mph. This is the same argument against self driving cars; humans want control to keep themselves safe, not so they can be dangerous.
  - cutemonster 6y ago
    > ... Everyone around you is speeding; going slower is more dangerous Yes those things can happen, however the car can allow the driver to go say 15 km/h faster, doesn't need to slow down at +0.01 above the limits. Some people frequently go 30 km too fast... On 30 km roads in areas with children
nexuist 6y ago
Actually, a bit of a gruesome idea I had was to look at NHTSA crash records and calculate the average probability of death at various speeds in my vehicle (Nissan Xterra). As you speed up and break the speed limit, a little % icon on the dashboard rises to indicate how likely you are to die if something goes wrong. I think the emotional impact of staring your fatality chances in the face as they steadily rise might encourage safer behavior for our monkey brains.
- cutemonster 6y ago
  Gruesome? I'd say possibly life saving :-)

sandworm101 6y ago

There has been market research on this going back decades. Setting aside all the latest tech: Would anyone in america buy a car that would not allow the driver to break the speed limit? That was proposed decades ago and could be done with a simple clockwork mechanism to limit the throttle once the car hit 70mph. People are fine with an optional adaptive cruise control because they can ignore it. They aren't OK with a system that actively disallows behavior. There was another interesting proposal: Lights/sirens that automatically turn on when the police/ambulance/firetruck breaks the speed limit. Again, no takers.

pandaman 6y ago
"Not breaking speed limit" and "driving by the rules" are different things. If you are passing on a two lane road without breaking speed limit then you are actually breaking the rules by creating a dangerous situation. This is why propositions to set governor to the maximum speed limit won't fly. However, people do want features like ESC, which can effectively limit your speed much lower than the posted speed limit if the road conditions do not allow higher speed. Same with collision avoidance system that do not allow to drive into obstacles and pedestrians, I don't think anybody opposes them. So I think more complex safety behaviors would have their market just as long as they actually improve safety and are not dangerous knee-jerk solutions in search of a problem.