I'm still waiting for a car company to create an intelligent GPS system that registers the top speed of a road and only allows the car to exceed that speed limit by say 10kmh for safety reasons. We have the technology to do this so why don't car manufactures. It's ridicolous to have cars that go 250kmh+ in Australia when the maximum highway speed is 110kmh. Makes no sense to me. Cars speed should be greatly limited to match the country they are heading to, not just the autobahn!!!

IMO, if you need to speed, get off the road!!!

Sounds good but than how will cops make money? Speeding tickets is a source of revenue for cops in US.

Take the train then!

If my car brakes for me, sets my speed and stops at the lights for me, if it tells me when I should have a rest and forbids me to drive because I'm a bit drunk, if it records all what I do in a black box, then I won't take my car anymore.

I don't want to be scared by my car, because it spies me and will record all my errors and make bips everytime and say messages to criticize all what I do.
I don't want it to do everything for me, I don't want it to forbid anything. I want to drive.

The automatic driving is not what makes me dream. Not at all.

In our civilization, everything becomes more and more controlled, for the sake of safety, against the terrorism, against the crimes, against this or against that our governments are spying, filming, listening to us. More and more things are forbidden, we have less and less freedoms and I am aginst that. If now even our cars become spyers and forbidders, then no, please...

then I will stay with my old Golf, I can at least trust it and it is more like a friend than like a prison guard.

Try explaining that to the mother of a teenager who was killed in a MVA because they were or their friends were speeding. With a maximum speed limit of 110kmh, there is no point in having a car limited to 250kmh in Australia. I also ask, why would you be worried with a car not able to greatly exceed the speed limit enforced on that road? Do you want to speed? It would make diving safer if cars in Australia were reduced to a maximum of 120kmh!!!

I have nothing against a limitation to the top speed of a car, say 160km/h...but in some countries you have free highways like in Germany and people usually drive well faster than that without excessive death rate.
Clearly it is not speeding in a free highway that kills a lot of people.

It is irresponsible driving like going to Vmax in a 500bhp sedan and seeing only when you hit the 250km/h mark that the road ends right now...

Like I said, I think it is good to have a two-stage driving licence, with a special driving licence for powerful cars that you only could pass after 2 or 3 years of driving, and with some practise with skidding, spinning, cars loosing grip, hard braking, counter-steering.

But a car that would reduce your speed alone because the GPS senses that here it is 90km/h and you are currently driving 100, no thanks.

I know it is in project, like black-boxes to record the driving just before the crash and automatic braking at the traffic light or stop. And today we have adaptative cruise-control with automatic braking, anti-tired-driver assistant, lane keep assyst, automatic parking system, etc...

That is, for me, by no way a progress. Soon our cars will record our driving, for the sake of safety of course...The GPS/emergency-call will allow anybody to know where we are, a bit like a Traquer...

1984, Georges Orwell, remember?

I'm sorry to say it's here. All governments are installing cameras in the street, satellites can spy us, the Echelon system is secretly listening to us...Google could work with the autorities,and record all our request... and M$ is said to have installed a back-door in Vista for the US government...

C'mon, doesn't it apper a slightly little bit too much? Where is our freedom, to all of us that live in the "Free World"?

I am against all that.

If now even my car does that, hell I'll take a bicycle then!

And to answer your question...I don't drive fast, my Golf does 190km/h max, and one of my first car did not manage to hit the 100km/h mark.

I really don't care if cars are limited to a speed. But I do care if my car tells me how fast I have to go on this street here, and has the last word over me about that. And like I said, free Autobahn have not a particularly high rate of accidents.

What would a GPS-linked speed system have done for the 5 in the M5? it would have said okay, it's an aeroport so you can speed, there is no limitation here.
And the young cocks that want to speed always find ways to beat a limiter, because a big car would be powerful BUT limited. Look at AMG or M or RS, limited to 250 but a little trick allow you to deregulate them.

And I don't think the clients would accept to buy a 110hp Ferrari.

Limitimg speed and power of a car is a very good way to kill the passion, without noticeably reducing the killing on the road. To do that you only can forbid the cars.

hmmm... these guys did get off the road! There were no speed limits on the runway, so your (slightly expensive) solution wouldn't have helped in this case, now would it?

Just a stupid idea, if the driver seen that he was running out of airfield about 50/75m before, if he , and imagining he has in a manual M5, and considering he has in 6th gear, if he downshifted to a 3rd, or maybe a 2nd, the S85 would make 9000/10.000rpm and blow immediatly, but the desacelaration produce by the engine(and he step on the brakes hard too) could he save him and his passengers?

The maximum deceleration of a car is limited by the grip of the tyres (unless you hit something stronger and slower or fixed...)

This grip is used to the maximum by a full braking with the ABS eliminating any risk of skid.

IMO, the only thing this downshifting would do is blocking the rear wheels, thus making the car spin. Furthermore the rear wheels only have a "minor" role in braking a car. because when you brake, the weight of the car goes to the front, and therefore the rear wheels have much fewer grip than the front wheels...so much less braking power.

It would have the same effect as a big handbraking, while braking at the maximum: only blocking the rear wheels, not really braking harder.

This only could work if the brakes are completely faded. And then you could directly put the reverse gear...

Another solution would have been to jump out of tha car, but risky and...hey you just don't think to it. And with the safety belt, and the auto-door locking, it is not that easy to do!

Just don't drive stupidly and you will not have to think to all that...

I think you misunderstand me. I'm implying that in Australia, were the top speed limit is 110kmh, what is the point of having a car limited to 250kmh. Having that limit is only encouraging drivers to exceed the speed limit because they have the ability to. Humans are extremely curious by nature and when given the chance to exceed the speed limit, studies show that they will. More then half of the MVA I deal with at work are due to speeding. If cars in Australia were limited to 120km/h, drivers would not have the option to speed. It shouldn't even be a option because it is illegal!

In terms of the smart GPS system, I don't mean for th car to control the speed but to control the speed limit of the car. On a 60km/h road, the GPS would register that is the speed of the road and subsequently delimit the car to only 70km/h. This would allow people to still exceed the limit slightly in an emergency but not ofer the ability to go say 100+km/h on a 60km/h road.

I know this would not have helped the five men killed in this dreadful accident but something must be done to stop fatalities related to speeding on the road. If we take away the option of speeding then hopefully we will see a major reduction!!!

So the Sat Nav in your 5er doesn't tell you you've exceeded the speed limit? I get this "Speed Limit Exceeded" message on the Sat Nav in the X5 whenever I'm over the speed limit. Of course it doesn't control my speed, it just warns me.