Oh get real. :rolleyes:
The reason that speed governors aren’t required is that they aren’t needed, they offer the possibility of being actually dangerous in certain situations, they would be expensive (even marginal expenses are anathema to the industry, as proven over and over again), and the public, in general, doesn’t believe they are needed. Amazing how easily that can be decided by application of a close shave with William’s razor. 
Consider passing movements. Of course you’re not supposed to exceed the speed limit when passing (well, that’s how we were taught), but we all do so. Imagine how dangerous it would be if you miscalculated slightly and couldn’t accelerate yourself out of a problem?
Most cars I’ve driven cut out at 180 kph, and that is from experience. The 1999 Suburban I tried out was limited to 200kph.
So, yeah, you can limit upper speed without effecting engine power, but why? What good is an 85mph limit when you’re in the city? You’re going to add a stupid additional expense for very few (relatively speaking) violations on a rural freeway?
But the vehicle computer already monitors speed and controls the engine. Couldn’t it be accomplished with a few extra lines of code? I know even a 10-cent hardware can add up if you multiply it by a million cars, but that doesn’t hold true for software modifications.
You still have to come up with something that doesn’t let your accelerator pedal over-ride your control of the throttle.
Now, mind you, golf carts these days do it quite regularly, but there there is a need, since the manufacturors were being sued for failure to put them in. Mark my words, you’ll see speed restrictors on cars when enough suits for defective products are successful in their absence.
Huh?
Just FYI, Texas recently passed 80 MPH speed limits on I-10 and I-20 in West Texas. I believe the signs were to be changed around September 1st. Arizona is also considering bumping up to 80.
GOOD!
Some of you youngsters probably don’t remember the 22+ years of highway tyranny between 1973 & 1995 when the limit was 55 nation wide (65 in some places after 1987:rolleyes: ) and you couldn’t get anywhere within a resonable amount of time!
We were out in Montana in 1996 when it was “Reasonable & Prudent”. It was great!
Personally I’d like to see the highway minimum speed be 80. Those signs that read “slower drivers keep right” should say “Slower drivers speed the hell up!” 
Um, well, just remove a “your” and it makes sense. As in what I should’ve done before the “submit” button sucked me down into no-edit hell. :eek:
On a related note, highway driving speed has been pretty much unchanged over the past. . . what, 50 years? Why? Is 70 mph what my grandchildren will be driving?
If you study automobiles real close, you will notice an interesting trend in vehicle speed governors.
Almost all governors are set in a fashion that could plausibly be explained by arguing that the governor was configured to avoid the automaker having to spec the next speed rating of tire up from what they’re using. That costs money, and would force them to raise the base price of the vehicles.
Many passenger cars are governed to 106-108 MPH.
You’ll notice those same cars come with S-rated radials, which are rated as good up to 112 MPH for at least half an hour. [1]
I happen to know that my current car, with a 106 MPH limiter, should easily attain upwards of 130 without a speed limiter. Since most Mercury Sable drivers don’t view their car as a sporting machine, cheap, cushy S-rated tires get attached.
In today’s litigious environment, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a vendor that provides a higher governed top end than the rating of his car’s tires, with the possible exception of certain models that can break 150 MPH.
As an aside, in one recent model year, Chevrolet limited their Impala patrol car to 128. They claimed that it would overheat if run at its 134 MPH mechanical top speed.
[1] http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=35
The other thing is that there are people who drive at 100+ MPH on the highway. Me, for example. If there’s a car with a governor, and another similar one without it, I’ll buy the one without the governor.
There are quite a few situations where a governor is potentially lethal.
There is a runaway truck behind you on a downhill. Speed up, or get punted. You don’t have to go THAT fast, just two miles faster than however fast the truck’s going…
You’re out on the back roads and have pulled out to pass an 18-wheeler on a straight. Right as you start passing the tractor, the trucker remembers that he’s got an 8V92 under the hood and stomps on it. Do you trust your engine more than your luck? If you haul on the brakes, you’ve gotta drop back past 50 feet of truck and then hope and wish and pray that there’s nobody who’s closed the gap between you and the truck…
You’re a member of a volunteer fire department. The local old folks’ home has just caught fire. Every minute between the call going out and enough guys being on the truck to be able to roll out is critical…
You’re out on the Interstate. You’ve got a car with some lift-off oversteer built into the setup (most good hot hatches, or any mid-engine car). You’re halfway through a corner and have the power on. If you lift off or power is cut for any reason at all, you’re going through the guardrail and into the trees…
You’re on the wrong end of somebody else’s road rage. He’s got an old pickup truck that can’t possibly have the power to get up past 90 miles per hour. You’ve got a modern sedan and a relatively open stretch of highway ahead of you. Do you want the sedan that goes “ding…ding… overspeed… power off” at 85 miles per hour, or the one that’ll go as fast as the engine can shove it through the air?
You sell new cars. If you don’t sell cars, you don’t eat. Last year’s were the last model year to be unrestricted…
Probably because visibility of those roads and the response time of the human brain & nervous system remain unchanged.
They do? Is there a cite for this somewhere? I was under the impression that Germany had autobahns and higher allowed speeds because that’s the way they’ve always been since the 1930’s, and they see no need to drive at 70 if you can safely drive at 120. And Ford/GM et al sell the exact same models in Germany that they do elsewhere in Europe - a Ford Mondeo might not be as pleasant as a BMW when cruising at 100mph+ but it won’t disintegrate.
Incidentally, most roads in Germany do have speed limits, and I believe german cars are electronically limited to 250kph to stop things getting silly. However most people have no trouble whatsover driving fast when conditions allow, because they are used to it. The german attitude to blanket speed limits like those in the US and UK is that they are only needed because people can’t drive, and I have to agree. I feel safer on an autobah doing 125 than I do on a british motorway at 70.
I drove through Montana in October of 1997 and found out my 1990 Camry has a speed governor that kicked in at 185 kph (~115 mph).
We were out there in July of 1996 and I found out my brand new '96 Pontiac Grand Prix had a governor that kicked in at a lousy 105mph! 
:mad: