Re: Good
My BMW X6 has a voluntary speed limiter on it and I for one am not sure it contributes to safety on the contrary I believe its dangerous, for the following reasons.
1) Outdated map data. A GPS based speed limiter relies on the cars map data and that needs to be absolutely up to date else you end up driving to slow or too fast and I've driven enough around Europe to know that when even big changes like a round about being in a place for 3+ years still isn't showing up in the cars map data today then speed limit changes are not going to either.
2) Missing or "forgotten" road (work) signs, I don't know if you've driven much on country roads in France and southern Europe but road signs are scares and optional especially on country roads its your guess as anyone's as to what the speed limit is on a road. And then there are the 'forgotten' road work signs which are left behind which wreck an absolute havoc on the camera based speed detection, see 3 below.
3) The instant acceleration and braking on posted signs! It must be absolutely horrifying for people driving behind me as my X6 slams on the brakes on each posted speed reduction, because again of the outdated map data above the car can't "know" in advance that a speed reduction is coming. The same goes for posted speed increases, the car just floors it when the onboard camera registers a speed increase on a posted sign.
So overall I'd say these systems are more dangerous than anything, and the 3 problems above are not going to be solved in the next 2 years which means we are going to end up with speed limiter systems that infuriate drivers as they constantly nag them about speed limit changes that are not real, and I for one believe that will actually distract people more and thus cause more harm than good.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
