Hey Steve. How fast does this car go?
I guess as fast as the speed limit allows...
Yeah... sure... but how fast can it actually go?
Well… the speedometer says 140mph, but when would that even happen?
When indeed…
Why?
Why indeed...
The average speed limit is 70 mph, while the average car can reach
much higher speeds. Some speedometers even show speeds that these cars can’t possibly reach!
Today’s fastest road-legal car, the SSC Tuatara, maxes out at 282.9 mph.
OK these are in closed courses, but doesn’t it just make you want to get out there and drive?
We all know speeding is dangerous. In the US alone,
25 people lost their lives every day to speed-related accidents in 2019.
But most of us are guilty of pushing the limit now and then,
whether we’re trying to get somewhere faster, or just chasing that little hit of dopamine.
I wanted to find out why, throughout the 20th century and even more so today,
car makers have been able to build their cars to be faster and faster,
even up to speeds that are definitely illegal on any road.
Both cars and roads have become safer over the years, with most
cars now having electronic stability control, blind spot detection, and driver assistance.
But there’s one obvious safety measure that you rarely ever hear about: The electronic
speed limiter, otherwise known as “the governor”, that electronically limits a car’s maximum speed.
For most consumer vehicles in Europe, it’s not a legal requirement yet,
but a lot of car manufacturers add them as an option. Only the Swedish carmaker, Volvo,
has officially capped the speed of its cars at 112 mph in a bid to save lives. ​
That’s all great, but… it’s still a good chunk over even the highest speed limits in
the US. I mean, the country’s fastest road is a 40-mile stretch in Texas at 85 mph.
Now, if you were in Germany, you’d at least have the Autobahn,
a stretch of road going thousands of miles without a speed limit.
But everywhere else, the electronic limiters are as effective as being told to take it easy
on the popcorn when I’ve already hit the bottom and they’re rolling the credits.
So why would manufacturers build cars that can go so fast?
Well first off, there’s a mechanical reason why and it’s about power. I’m
a public transport person with a long-expired drivers license, so bear with me, gearheads.
It’s the transmission, the set of gears, converting the engine’s power and helping
a car go faster. It helps save fuel when you have a transmission that can move a car faster
at a lower rpm. So for better fuel economy, the standard highway speed should be in the
car’s sweet spot. Somewhere between 1,500 and 2,000 rpm will do it.
More than that, a more powerful engine means…
Getting onto the freeway more easily.
Passing trucks more easily. An emergency situation.
PRE-CRUX
Well, that makes sense. But then I found a 2020 survey by AAA Foundation
saying 45% of drivers self-reported that they drive 15 mph over the speed limit.
On the interstate, that’s quite a bit higher than the average car’s “sweet spot”.
In the United States, the government has long been hesitant to interfere
with the public’s access to fast cars, despite the countless campaigns against speeding.
41 million speeding tickets are issued in the US every year.
It’s really quite astounding how much influence the auto industry really has,
not just on consumers but on governments too. I mean, the global auto industry market size,
the expected revenue, is $2.7tr for 2021.
If the automaker– if they’re not going to be pushed on it, then they’re happy to keep things
the way they are. Right now, I don’t think there’s any incentive on their end to change.
It’s not as if the auto industry is totally unregulated. In the US,
the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency have
kept a keen eye on car design and safety, mandating seat belts, airbags
and crumple zones, not to mention fuel efficiency standards and emissions laws.
From a policy perspective, climate change – huge issue. So, if the automakers are like,
“Well, we’re working on electric”, to a certain extent it can give them cover for other things.
The one thing they don’t regulate is the most dangerous of all.
So here we are.
The real reason car makers are able to push the limits on their products.
Well…
It’s been in our faces all this time, ever since 1898, when an ad told us to “dispense with a
horse”. In the early days of auto, it was Henry Ford himself that sold the world on the ethos that
“freedom of movement drives progress.” Since Ford’s time, car ads have gone quite the journey…
In a lot of places in the country, the car culture’s always going to be very important.
If you don’t believe me, just head on down to Talladega Superspeedway.
NASCAR came from the idea of taking a regular car and race it.
Many car manufacturers cater to a market that values freedom,
and what that symbolises, above all things. They’re also catering to
thrill-seekers looking for a hit of dopamine, among other things…
Researchers in a 2009 study compared the testosterone levels of a group
of men driving high-speed sports cars with another group of men driving regular sedans.
The results showed that the men driving the sports cars had higher levels of testosterone.
Traffic accidents are 8th in causes of death worldwide,
and the leading cause of death for people in the US under 54.
Who knows, perhaps in the future, car ads may go the way of tobacco ads.
Tobacco companies were the largest product advertisers on television in 1969
then two years later… complete broadcast ban… for obvious reasons.
What isn’t so obvious is the kind of compromise that needs to be made to
avoid high traffic fatality rates without hitting the brakes on a vast industry.
The industry has pushed back on safety standards in the past, from seatbelts
to airbags to electric cars. Anything they view as either unnecessary or too costly.
But over the years, the public’s attitude towards safety has changed, and with it, the auto market.
From the automaker’s perspective, when we talk about new safety features,
that means spending money. But some of those things are appealing to the consumers. Adding
airbags to a minivan – that’s actually going to be a big selling feature.
If somebody wants to talk about speed limiters, they’re gonna come back and say,
“Well, that’s tough on us. I mean, our consumers don’t want it,
and it’s going to cost us money to put it in the car.”
While the government stays out of the people’s garages, safety advocates are focused on at
least designing roads to deter people from pushing limits. With speeding more likely on wider roads,
one idea is to reduce lane widths to 10 feet in cities, narrowing the driver’s tunnel of vision
so they slow down. There’s also high-visibility crosswalks, street trees, these little offset
curb extensions called chicanes, and that’s just the start of it. But is it enough?
Cars can do good things and I don’t want to limit that. Cars also have so many negative
externalities that are made worse when car companies say “this is a car that can go 300%
faster than the fastest speed limit in the United States, or this is a vehicle that’s 9000 lbs.”
In 2019, the European Union decided all cars sold after May 2022 would have speed
limiters. The technology, the Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA), isn’t mechanically enforced,
but it will warn drivers when they creep over the limit, then slow the car down itself.
You can override it just by pushing hard on the accelerator,
but it’s something. I suppose it’s part of pan-European culture: to prod and
pester people into sticking to the law, rather than taking control of the vehicle by force.
Meanwhile, a UK survey showed that support for the measure outnumbers opposition
two to one, with 49% in favor of speed limiters and 24% opposed.
But even technology suggesting a slower speed
wouldn’t be popular with drivers who value the freedom to drive faster, speed limit be damned.
Half of the surveyed people against speed limiters say they would delay their next purchase to keep
driving unrestricted, and another 30% say they would buy a used car over a new one.
And while a quarter of those in favor of the technology are now more likely to buy a new car,
surprisingly, another quarter will seek to avoid it.
Sure, it’s everyone else that’s driving like a maniac,
you’re a speeding angel behind the wheel...
With a measure as sweeping and controversial as this, Europe’s auto industry could expect
to see a drop in car sales as a result. And in the US, where its auto industry
is one of the largest manufacturing sectors, contributing to 3.5% of the country’s GDP,
limiting isn’t exactly at the top of the federal to do list.
We can have cars that are actually ethical, that are safe,
that are good for the climate, that are good for your checkbooks. And car companies also
can make money doing that. They’re not going to go bankrupt. People still need to get around.
Whoa slow down there maverick, you’re pushing the engine to the limit here.
We’re literally going 60
Oh, then why does it sound like your car’s gonna break down any second?
Why indeed.