Only an issue for those that have cars First Registered from now and that exceed Speed Limits. 

Even the lowest power cars on sale in the UK can go over 60 mpg NSL or the 70 MPH max, performance cars really being no different.

The speed limiters are not retarding the acceleration. 

Mine isn't new, being a 2020. I have enabled the connection between the throttle and the speed limits as read by camera or internal map.

 

Mostly this is a joy. But fairly often it's a blinking nuisance and gets it wrong.

 

Even in my own village there is a long stretch of 40. At two points, always the same, the car sets itself to 30. As there are no 30 roadsigns, the internal map must be wrong.

 

I investigated and thought I found the maps were from Here mapping. But this road in Here is marked correctly as 40 throughout.

 

My maps update OTA regularly so it's not that.

 

There are bits of the A1 where the car suddenly decides it's 50 or 60 and then 70 again, which annoys me and probably the car behind.

 

There are chunks of road where the car ignores the NSL after leaving a 30 and insists it's 30 all the way to the next village.

 

All in all, as long as I can override these things manually I can live with it. If the car was more determined I should abide by its mistakes, I'd be miffed.

 

As usual though the trouble is that the bureaucrats making up these daft rules and laws don't actually live in the real world, or understand the limitations of the technology available...   Nor the wider implications of what they propose.  They have a blinkered view and usually only looks at one set of data to justify their thoughts...   That data being the one that fits their narrative.

 

Call me cynical but these are the people and the stuff I deal with on a regular basis in my line of work.

Skoda have produced cars since your 2020 with gash IT & still failed right up to 2024 to fix many faulty cars and even cars they have delivered in 2024.

It will be interesting to see if June 2024 on Skoda,s have Fit for Purpose systems installed or if they will need to delay First Registrations & hand overs. 

 

They have been allowed by the DVSA / DfT to get away with putting on the road faulty cars and not doing Service Campaigns let alone Recalls. 

It strikes me that this is being driven by a desire to control us rather than any actual safety aspects. There are so many ways that this could go and be implemented and so many ways that the system can fail in a catastrophic fashion that has the real potential to seriously injure or kill more people than it can save.

 

Will it be an interactive system or a passive one that makers will adopt, if interactive, how will it be enacted, will it suddenly cut power until the car complies with the new limit on that stretch of road, will flash brake lights as a warning to older cars behind that don't have the system to try and prevent them running into the car in front when it suddenly drops speed at a rate of knots in order to comply with the speed limit?

Edited 12 June, 20241 yr by Graham Butcher

We have had FIAT,s and other putting on Hazard Lights when there is heavy braking or actually light braking for over a decade now.

 

Also now Skoda PHEV & BEV,s and other manufacturers cars putting the brake lights on just when the vehicle does slowing down with strong or not that strong regenerative braking / retarding speed.

1 hour ago, Ootohere said:

We have had FIAT,s and other putting on Hazard Lights when there is heavy braking or actually light braking for over a decade now.

 

Also now Skoda PHEV & BEV,s and other manufacturers cars putting the brake lights on just when the vehicle does slowing down with strong or not that strong regenerative braking / retarding speed.

All true, but sadly not all cars do that.

Thank someones god that they do not all activate the Hazards just when someone touches the brake to change lane. 

 

What all cars might or might not have done in the past is changing now and into the future. 

 

As to Performance cars, what a PITA the drivers of those can be when they want to be in your back seat and if you let them past they are going slower than you were and proud that they 'Took you like a King'.   or D!ck!

Edited 12 June, 20241 yr by Ootohere

Times change with technical progression and demographics to say the least - that’s why we don’t have a man walking in front with a red lamp, right?

The current road safety campaign strapline of “speed kills” is too low brow. Speed doesn’t kill alone, it’s speed without control, awareness and a moral code that tends to have the undesired effect. But “Speed kills” is simple and straightforward for the masses.
And I think this legislation is the same issue - there are far too many nuances to driving to all be managed, but if they sort the headline-grabber then that helps lawmakers feel like they’re making a difference.

 

As for wording if the article, it actually ebbs and flows all over the shop. Explaining what a limiter is (preventing speed limit breaches) then elaborating that it will be action to alert the driver. They’re not the same thing at all but there we are.

 

Are there issues with vehicles with existing speed limiters? Lorries, coaches etc.?

All sorts, including the archetypal "elephant race" where the vehicle in lane 2 has a limiter set 0.2mph faster than the vehicle in lane 2...

2 hours ago, travs said:

Are there issues with vehicles with existing speed limiters? Lorries, coaches etc.?

No, the software based limiters on our buses work perfectly. 

They dont seem to work on the ( often Irish registered) lorries heading along the SW Scotland A75 for the ferry - good job though since the HGV limit on most of that road (mostly single carriageway) is 40 so its not too bad following one of those trucks with a defective speed limiter at 60 ish ( plus a bit!) or so.  
I firmly believe its much more dangerous when queues are following a truck doing the 40. 

Edited 12 June, 20241 yr by Shuggyboatsuperb

9 minutes ago, Shuggyboatsuperb said:

They dont seem to work on the ( often Irish registered) lorries heading along the SW Scotland A75 for the ferry - good job though since the HGV limit on most of that road (mostly single carriageway) is 40 so its not too bad following one of those trucks with a defective speed limiter at 60 ish ( plus a bit!) or so.  
I firmly believe its much more dangerous when queues are following a truck doing the 40. 

I thought for the most part the A75 was limited to 40mph anyway, so anything higher is breaking the limit?

The A77 as well.  I like to get behind a yellow McBurney HGV through the 60 mph limit and speed cameras from Girvan to Ayr. 

Or the coaches between Stirling and Perth where even a 70 mph limit and 23 miles of average camera is not keeping some to an indicated 70 mph.

(Different speed limits for some vehicles in Scotland from RofUK and some pilot speed limits for some vehicles.

@Graham ButcherFor cars its 60 apart from the 30 in a few villages that arent bypassed and 70 on the few miles dual carriageway

Edited 12 June, 20241 yr by Shuggyboatsuperb

On the A77 Crawler lane the speed limit is not higher because no centre barrier,  Maybole by-pass as well like on parts of the A9 where people think 2 lanes in their direction so open it up.  Elephant Racing is very much of a problem. 

Edited 12 June, 20241 yr by Ootohere

2 minutes ago, Ootohere said:

On the A77 Crawler lane the speed limit is not higher because no centre barrier,  Maybole by-pass as well like on parts of the A9 where people think 2 lanes in their direction so open it up.  Elephant Racing is very much of a problem. 

That always annoyed the hell out of me, I could never understand when lorry 1 is going at x speed and lorry 2 decides he is going to overtake when all he can muster is x+1mph extra, why the hell would you overtake knowing full well that you are going to have a lot of frustrated people behind you?

I have a few friends and acquaintances in the transport community, and this same question I did ask all of them in one moment or another.

 

From a time at work/to work perspective, since their vehicles are limited by speed control, but they also have a driving time limit after which they need to forcefully stop and "rest", each mile journey is precious, counterbalanced by fuel consumption of course.

So, begin able to overtake and move ahead a good stretch before time to "rest" comes, is important. Sometimes these people are journeying for several hundred, when not thousand of miles. And rest intervals are dictated by time, not mileage.

 

Let also consider that this can mean to "make it or break it" at fixed points, ferries, borders, and the like. When a few min can make the difference to missing a ferry, or hitting the border control in "break" (why they need to break while at work is a mystery), or even get to a pleasant stop instead of a dreadful parking stop in the middle of nowhere.

 

Moreover, there are differences in the vehicles themselves, while they all look alike, mechanically some can be better than others, and drivers exploit these advantages. A friend was telling me when he replaced the tires on his tractor, he chose a slightly rolling diameters meant he could "trick" the tachograph by doing couple mph more than was the instrument would be recording, and this was an advantage that could enable to overtake more "colleagues".

And finally sometimes they get tired, and simply swap leads when in convoy, even if keeping same speed.

 

Now true this "bothers" other drivers, and several of these guys really don't give a d@mn, but on the other hand we "car" users are far worse on our behavior on the road. We often forget these behemoth need large spaces for braking and their handling does not allow for fast reactions like a car would. Is a matter if finesse and respect on the road, which seldom appears.

 

I just came back from 1500km on SE Europe highways, and I saw in proportion much more dis-respect from 4-wheelers than from 18-wheelers. Sometimes is a matter of simple dynamics of travel, let me give you two examples which I went thru, among many: I am on a long stretch of road doing the speed limit, I come upon a convoy of two 18-wheelers, the follower noticeably faster and edging closer to the lead, thus getting ready to overtake. This will not hinder my progression, as I am fairly far and my speed differential allows for this to take place safely, but what to do? This is where the complex combination of skill, experience, know-how of the road and vehicles, and respect come to play.

One time the follow truck waited for me, so I raise my speed a few kph to bridge the gap faster, pass, and then he started overtaking. I thanked and he replied in return.

On another occasion, I flashed (once!) to warn and dropped a few kph to increase the speed gap, to which he started the overtaking and I barely got closer enough "to be bothered" ... moves to the right and I keep on. He thanks me and I reply in return.

Obviously is not always that nice, there are horrible places where traffic is hellish, is a dog eat dog scenario, but then this is not really the fault of the road users, but those who plan, build, and maintain that infrastructure, and get paid for its use as well!

 

I have great respect and admiration for the drivers of LGV/HGV and other heavy haulers. They live an awful life in horrific conditions, bad food, poor rest, miserable work conditions, tight/impossible deadlines, decadent infrastructure, mean border patrols, a lot of very stupid road users, and all this to make sure we get on our tables, wardrobes, and houses and lot of stuff we surely don't really need, but want to have. It is a vicious circle, we need them to have our junk, so we have to deal with them on the road ...

 

It is a fascinating aspect of the "modern" mobility of mankind 🙂

Edited 13 June, 20241 yr by leolito
added final effect sentence! :-)

@leolito I agree, having been at varying times in my life both a driver of buses and lorries and in particular I find that 4 wheelers (cars) do not fully appreciate the dynamics associated with lorries that are towing, be they either a breakdown truck towing or an articulated lorry, the latter of which I have never driven. 

 

I have been steering a bus which was on tow, with all the warning signs on display in the back of said bus, which was attached to a solid and rigid tow-bar hooked onto the breakdown truck and I have had cars trying to overtake me and then they discover the tow truck in front of me, with a car coming the towards them on their side of the road. The hapless car driver tried to jam his car in between me and the tow truck only to discover that I was attached to this 8ft rigid tow-bar, forcing me to mound the grass verge and trying to drag the tow truck with me 🙄.

 

On another occasion, I was being towed after rescuing a bus that had broken down in service, we approached a roundabout and we had to stop. When there was a gap in the traffic on the roundabout, the tow truck pulled away sharply and the snatch on the tow-bar actually snapped the eyelet on the tow-truck, leaving me sitting there unable to move and watching the tow truck driving away, with a long line of motorists stuck behind me, blowing their horns.