You've seen the speed limiters they put in F1 cars to stop them mowing down hapless mechanics... You know that you drive too fast...but you don't want to take the fun out of it. There are more and more speed cameras appearing every day...

So you have a series of buttons on the steering wheel/ stalk / whatever that keep the car at an exact 30 or 50 or 70 etc. kind of like a multiple setting cruise control, but you have to keep pressing the accelerator.

Fantastic for cruising past cameras / policemen feeling smug and if you let go of the button then the fun can come roaring back if you so desire.

1st idea so be nice - coz it's Friday and you've had a long week.
-- boffin, Aug 22 2003

No thanks, but welcome anyway.
-- Don Quixote, Aug 22 2003


Why not a whole scale of buttons: 10, 11, 12, 13, ..., 50, 51, 52, ... 69, 70?

Better yet, why not a continuum?

Wait, the gas pedal already does that. Never mind.
-- phundug, Aug 22 2003


Isn't this pretty much what cruise control does?
-- angel, Aug 22 2003


I'm still getting my head around your _long_ list of rules. Delete me for advocacy misbehavior. Next!
-- boffin, Aug 22 2003


Welcome [boffin].

"Keep pressing the accelerator" hits me as a bit of a technical issue. Unless this is a drive-by-wire car, the throttle body will be opened to some amount dictated by the accelerator position. This will cause unhappy things to happen if you try to restrict the speed by cutting down on fuel flow. Or maybe your proposal is to have the brakes applied automatically to restrict the speed while you've got the accelerator to the floor?

As a temporary cruise control type device this might be interesting. A discrete value, short term cruise control device seems, in my opinion, a more palatable proposition. I kind of like that idea.

I think the "for all" and "every car" phrases may be raising the advocacy question.
-- half, Aug 22 2003


Daimler-Chrysler ist building a digital speed-limiter. you just enter your desired maximum speed, press the accelerator and your car won´t go past that speed.
-- RaoulDuke, Aug 22 2003


"Audi. Our cars go to 11."


-- DeathNinja, Aug 22 2003


I think all new cars should be fitted with a speed limiter. It is not a cruise control (cruise is rarely useful on British roads and never useable in town), it is a voluntary limit set by the driver, which will prevent him inadvertently exceeding the speed limit. It allows you do drive at any speed below the limit you set.

I would happily drive at or below the speed limit most of the time but it is just too difficult to do it. It wouldn’t take many cars with speed limiters to make a difference to road safety, one car would cause all the others behind it to obey the speed limit.

The main point is it is voluntary, set by the driver to what ever he wishes. It gives the driver MORE control over the vehicle.
-- Sam7, Oct 01 2003


If [Sam7]'s idea is essentially the same as [Boffin]'s, this gets a croissant. It doesn't need to be a regulatory requirement "for all"; it's a (marginally) useful feature.
-- ConsultingDetective, Feb 01 2004


I am looking to buy such a speed limiter as mentioned by Sam7. If any one knows about where to buy such a product please email me at jogoldd@hotmail.com. Many thanks.
-- jogoldd2, Aug 11 2004



random, halfbakery