# Why are cars allowed to go really fast? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 1, 2006, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-cars-allowed-to-go-really-fast/355005 "2006-05-01T22:13:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![The\_Swan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a87d85/32.png) [@The\_Swan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Swan)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2006, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-cars-allowed-to-go-really-fast/355005/21 "2006-05-02T06:05:50Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > I am wondering why street legal cars are allowed to be made that can go anything faster than, say, 90 mph. > > While it is nice to see a Porsche that can do 150+ I know of no place on the roads it is legal to do so. If there is no place in the US that allows speeds of over 75 (or whatever the top legal allowed speed is) why do they not mandate limiters that keep a car’s speed to that? > > I suppose you could take the limiters off of police cars and of course if you want to race your car on a private track then they could be removed but otherwise. Perhaps set the limiter on the top speed 10 mph over for some wiggle room to pass and such. > > Add to the law extreme penalties fro removing or modifying the limiter if on a public street to discourage it. Why isn’t this sort of thing mandated? I would guess that the answer to your question may have something to do with the fact that Automobile Manufacturers have very little concern with the laws that are in place (unless regulated). Though there are laws in place restricting speed, this does not require Auto Manufacturers to construct cars that are unable to break said laws. Ability vs. Action, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Swan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a87d85/32.png) [@The\_Swan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Swan)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2006, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-cars-allowed-to-go-really-fast/355005/22 "2006-05-02T06:10:03Z")
> [@Buck Rogers](#): > > Automation purists view automation as a philosophy. Do you automate for efficiency or for stupidity? > > We have had many of arguments on automating control philosophys in the manufacturing enviroment. The ideal appears to be maximum control for the operator not the machine. > > In other words, let’s take my BMW. some day it may save my life to take my bimmer well over 130 mph, who knows? I have the power if I need it but I have to be smart about using it [speed], if I ever use it. > > It’s like the analogy that guns don’t kill people, but people kill people. Do we hold the gun accountable becuase there are stupid people or do we hold the people accountable. Personally I like my concealed weapons permit and am smart about packing a weapon. > > Automobiles have electronic control governors for speed already, it’s just not slowed down to the level you described. > > If BMW slowed my bimmer down to 90 MPH I would not buy it. The auto manufactures know this and don’t do it unless forced by government. Having the government tell us how fast we should drive our cars is fixing the symptom not the problem. The problem is we need to drive smart. > > Great topic! I know a Buck Rogers who drives a BMW. You wouldn’t be in the Atlanta area, would you? ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Rogers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/958977/32.png) [@Buck\_Rogers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Rogers)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2006, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-cars-allowed-to-go-really-fast/355005/23 "2006-05-02T06:14:54Z")
No, Buck Rogers is just a forum name I use. NW Indiana here. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Swan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a87d85/32.png) [@The\_Swan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Swan)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2006, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-cars-allowed-to-go-really-fast/355005/24 "2006-05-02T06:18:32Z")
> [@Buck Rogers](#): > > No, Buck Rogers is just a forum name I use. NW Indiana here. Sorry, I should not have even asked. Your post just contained a bunch of information that I knew to be consistent with a friend. I am a member of a few message boards that are a bit more informal than this one, and I forgot where I was for a second. Please accept my apologies. ---
**Author:** ![Critical1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Critical1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Critical1)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2006, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-cars-allowed-to-go-really-fast/355005/25 "2006-05-02T06:33:26Z")
my Altima is capped at about 110, I drove an older nissan (forget what make) that you couldnt set the cruise for higher than 90. I fail to see what a speed limiter has to do with acceleration as some have posted, if you have a big engine theres nothing preventing you from taking off like a rocket if you want. I like the idea of having this as a parental control. there is no reason Teens should ever need to drive over 80mph, if you tied it with a gps system you could probably make it scale down to any road. speed is one of the top reasons kids crash, any dumbass can hit the gas pedal, it takes years of practice to control a car safely at excessive speeds and its something you can NEVER safely do on public roads. ---
**Author:** ![dnooman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/839c29/32.png) [@dnooman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dnooman)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2006, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-cars-allowed-to-go-really-fast/355005/26 "2006-05-02T06:49:50Z")
I think that the simplest answer is the correct one. The number of people that really want limiters and/or think that 150 mph speeds are to blame for a large percentage of deaths, are relatively small compared to the people thet don’t want limiters at all and/or think that super-high-speed fatal accidents are not nearly the biggest problem in the realm of driving safety. I see where you are coming from, but it doesn’t seem like it’s going to happen, mostly as a result of public opinion. OTOH, I’d like to see a device that can effectively stop a fleeing car via it’s electrical system (for police use only). That seems to be a few years away. ---
**Author:** ![dnooman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/839c29/32.png) [@dnooman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dnooman)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2006, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-cars-allowed-to-go-really-fast/355005/27 "2006-05-02T06:53:11Z")
> [@Critical1](#): > > I like the idea of having this as a parental control. there is no reason Teens should ever need to drive over 80mph, if you tied it with a gps system you could probably make it scale down to any road. > > speed is one of the top reasons kids crash, any dumbass can hit the gas pedal, it takes years of practice to control a car safely at excessive speeds and its something you can NEVER safely do on public roads. There are products on the market that allow parents to monitor (via GPS) the average and maximum speed of the car that their teen is driving. ---
**Author:** ![gouda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c77e96/32.png) [@gouda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gouda)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2006, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-cars-allowed-to-go-really-fast/355005/28 "2006-05-02T07:44:34Z")
Mercedes, BMW and Audi (I think) all have speed limiters set to kick in at 250 km/h as standard across all model ranges. I don’t know if it’s only the Germany-spec models that have the limiter, but I do know that it isn’t mandatory. The technology is there, and has been there for some years. Setting it to kick in at or just above the speed limit is not a good idea, for all the reasons **Absolute** mentions. ---
**Author:** ![Critical1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Critical1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Critical1)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2006, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-cars-allowed-to-go-really-fast/355005/29 "2006-05-02T07:56:48Z")
> [@Absolute](#): > > If you want to something about road safety in this country, stricter driver training and licensing is where to start. oh yeah I meant to quote this for real yo! ---
**Author:** ![AnabolicDoberman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecd19e/32.png) [@AnabolicDoberman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AnabolicDoberman)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2006, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-cars-allowed-to-go-really-fast/355005/30 "2006-05-02T08:05:10Z")
Because people like to speed 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2006, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-cars-allowed-to-go-really-fast/355005/31 "2006-05-02T08:11:55Z")
> [@gouda](#): > > Mercedes, BMW and Audi (I think) all have speed limiters set to kick in at 250 km/h as standard across all model ranges. I don’t know if it’s only the Germany-spec models that have the limiter, but I do know that it isn’t mandatory IIRC, the 155mph limiter was put in place to appease the Greens in Germany. Its mentioned quite often in car magazines, the device is easily removed. Having autobahn is one reason to have a car capable of these high speeds I suppose. The new Citroen C4 has a speed limiter controlled by the driver, but I’ve seen some mention of limiters controlled by satellite or activated by road signs on entering a town or city. ---
**Author:** ![Tappi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/848f3c/32.png) [@Tappi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tappi)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2006, 10:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-cars-allowed-to-go-really-fast/355005/32 "2006-05-02T10:56:30Z")
I seem to recall Clarkson trying to break 200mph on an autobahn, I think he bottled out at about 190mph. Anyway, you can bet the Germans would be annoyed if they had 90mph limiters put on all their cars and it would be a pain if German manufacturers had to make different versions of the same car to sell abroad. ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2006, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-cars-allowed-to-go-really-fast/355005/33 "2006-05-02T11:42:38Z")
Most car accidents are caused by one of three things: inattention, fatigue, or alcohol. Excessive speed, as has already been mentioned, is fairly low on the list of problematic driving behaviors. As a data point, in the Detroit area the freeways have speed limits ranging from 55 mph up to 70 mph. Typical traffic speeds, however, are usually somewhere around 70 - 80 mph, and we don’t seem to have an unusual amount of accidents. Christ, even the cops don’t obey the 55 mph limits. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Slant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@Mr.Slant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Slant)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2006, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-cars-allowed-to-go-really-fast/355005/34 "2006-05-02T11:50:14Z")
> [@Critical1](#): > > SNIP > I like the idea of having this as a parental control. there is no reason Teens should ever need to drive over 80mph, if you tied it with a gps system you could probably make it scale down to any road. > SNIP For $125 you can get a user-installable device [1] that will monitor the vehicle’s diagnostic bus and allow mom or dad to retrieve the vehicles fastest speed in the last day. It will also signal if it has been disconnected in that time period. For right around $300 I could have custom ROM burnt and installed for my car’s computer. When you order the ROM, you can spec the top speed you want. I could have my Sable behave normally in every fashion, except that when it hit 80 it would refuse to go any faster. [1] [www.scangauge.com](http://www.scangauge.com) ---
**Author:** ![liberty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/958977/32.png) [@liberty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/liberty)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2006, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-cars-allowed-to-go-really-fast/355005/35 "2006-05-02T12:04:47Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > No doubt people would want to do that hence the idea of making the laws much more harsh for doing just that. Would some people still do it? Probably but you do what you can. You could make it harder to do such a thing as well such as integrating the limiter into the engine’s computer controls so it can’t just be ripped out. Allow places like race tracks that allow people to bring their street cars to race have a temporary override (but one that would require opening the hood and plugging in a computer to a terminal there so it cannot be easily done from inside the car). > > To expand the OP a bit it seems there are a number of ideas like this that could be put into new cars to make roads safer. For instance perhaps cars could be fitted with an RFID. If the police are chasing someone in a car with this they could query the ID, ask headquarters for a special code based on the ID and then transmit that to the car which would cause the engine to idle (I put all those steps in there to make it a bit harder for just anyone to beam a shut down code at a car). > > Again I know there might be savvy car thieves out there who could foil this but many highspeed chases seem to be people who are not terribly savvy (e.g. a joyrider). It’s not the cars that make the roads safer or more dangerous. It’s the drivers of those vehicles. People need to learn again common sense and common curtesy(sp?) and realize that they need not run two feet from another car because they are not getting anywhere faster doing that. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2006, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-cars-allowed-to-go-really-fast/355005/36 "2006-05-02T12:25:58Z")
> [@Tappi](#): > > Anyway, you can bet the Germans would be annoyed if they had 90mph limiters put on all their cars and it would be a pain if German manufacturers had to make different versions of the same car to sell abroad. I see plenty of BMWs, Mercedes-Benzs, Audis, and Volkswagens on the roads here- every single one of which is a “different version” of the European one, by virtue of being right-hand drive. If BMW figure it’s worth their while making right-hand drive versions of their cars so rich people in the Former British Empire, Japan, and Thailand can buy them, I suspect they’ll see it as being worth their while to sell a speed limited version for the US market, if such a thing is ever mandated. I don’t think Speed Limiters for cars are likely to become mandatory in Australia, for two major reasons- one, the Car Culture (petrolheads who love their cars), and two, the fact that in many places (notably in the Northern Territory) there aren’t any speed limits outside the urban areas (“Drive to suit conditions”), and even in places where there are nominally speed limits, there’s not a hell of a lot to crash into on the Nullarbor Plain or the Outback if you feel like driving at 200km/h… It’s much the same reason why it’s legal for people on Learner’s Licences to drive around in big V8s or tricked out cars (in most places- I think NSW has some sort of power/torque restrictions which anyone on the Ls or Ps with a spare $20 can get an exemption from a the RTA)- because people here like cars and don’t want the Government telling them how to drive them or what they can and can’t do with them. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2006, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-cars-allowed-to-go-really-fast/355005/37 "2006-05-02T14:00:16Z")
The reason why cars don’t have mandatory speed limiters is simple: Until you break the law, the government has no business intruding into commerce and your private life and controlling things. If you want to go down the path of having the government manipulate our environment and products to keep us from abusing them, there are a lot of things they can start doing that you may not like. As for speed limiters, most cars have them, even high performance ones. A big reason is tires and product liability. If a car has tires that are only rated to 130 mph, but the car is capable of 150, the manufacturer will often limit the car’s speed to the tire limit to prevent a high-speed blowout and subsequent lawsuits. ---
**Author:** ![Dag\_Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@Dag\_Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dag_Otto)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2006, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-cars-allowed-to-go-really-fast/355005/38 "2006-05-02T14:31:36Z")
> [@Sam Stone](#): > > The reason why cars don’t have mandatory speed limiters is simple: Until you break the law, the government has no business intruding into commerce and your private life and controlling things. > > If you want to go down the path of having the government manipulate our environment and products to keep us from abusing them, there are a lot of things they can start doing that you may not like. Sure. Why bother with a RFID system to shut down a speeding car when more revenue can be generated by using RFID identification to issue speeding tickets? In fact, you could set up multiple speed control setpoints along a stretch of road, say one per mile. If you exceed the speed limit for six miles, a cop never bothers to pull you over. You simply get six speeding tickets in the mail. RFID will remove any problems with identification that photo radar units have. The RFID wouldn’t be part of the car. It would be in the license plate. Car manufacturers won’t be bothered at all. And why bother with just ticketing the driver? If an RFID chip is installed in the National ID that everyone has to carry, why not ticket all of them? After all, they are speeding too. ---
**Author:** ![Dag\_Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@Dag\_Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dag_Otto)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2006, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-cars-allowed-to-go-really-fast/355005/39 "2006-05-02T14:34:44Z")
> [@Dag Otto](#): > > why not ticket all of them? The passengers, that is. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2006, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-cars-allowed-to-go-really-fast/355005/40 "2006-05-02T16:26:22Z")
There’s nothing wrong with capability. Your lawnmower has the capability to mow grass, but it could also mow over your neighbor’s flowerbed. It’s a matter of personal responsibility. Vehicles may need to legitimately go fast when there is an emergency. Volunteer firefighters need to get around fast when there’s a fire or accident. Suppose you live 5 miles from the hospital and your child is injured. It would probably be faster to quickly and safely drive them to the hospital rather than wait for an ambulance. There’s nothing wrong with having a vehicle that _can_ go fast, it’s up to the individual if and when it does. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-cars-allowed-to-go-really-fast/355005.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-cars-allowed-to-go-really-fast/355005.md?page=3)