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by Mchl 3667 days ago
What exactly is the difference between 'speeding' and 'very high speed'?
3 comments

Speeding = you are to fast according to the allowed speed

High speed = anything above 130 km/h (about 80 mph; because that is the recommend speed on an Autobahn)

Very high speed = anything above 250 km/h (about 155 mph; because that is where normally the limiter kicks in)

Just, yesterday morning I drove my self at about 200 km/h (124 mph) because I was in hurry, because I had some unexpected road-construction work before.

This was an 18 year old girl, who just had her driving license (18 is the minimum legal age for driving here in Germany; 17 with governed driving by an adult)

Here an comparable accident who lifted for 40m (131ft) and crashed in a field with some rollover and it does not look that different from that Tesla accident: http://www.swp.de/heidenheim/lokales/polizeibericht/Auto-lan...

BTW: Are there any international news on how the safety cell of this BMW protected this 51 year old guy?

The gap between speeding and high speed is only 10mph or so but very high speed is nearly double? I don't think that's a reasonable definition. Most people rarely or never go over about 110ish? That would be my definition of very high speed. Even on the Autobahn - where presumably there are sections where a greater proportion of the population have done higher speeds - the rest of the world's perception and the kinetic energy doesn't decrease.
It's not an ordered system where speeding < high speed < very high speed.

You can be going at high speed, but not speeding because you are not breaking any law about going 'too fast'.

On the other hand, you can be speeding at 20mph because you are inside a public garage and the limit was actually 5mph.

How would you classify Formula 1 cars' speeds? (320 km/h or 200 mph)
plaid?
Racing speed?
According to the pictures / reports this car was driving on a normal road, not the Autobahn.

Outside of cities you're limited to 100km/h (or less ofc - but 100km/h is the maximum you'll get if we ignore rare cases with 4+ lane roads and a solid barrier in the middle → 120km/h). Speeding means that you drive reckless and/or cross the (low-ish) legal limit and/or the limit that common sense dictates.

"Very high speeds" over here refer to the Autobahn and I'd be quite hesitant to label anything below 180km/h as "very high speed".

Just so that you can chuckle a bit: My company car (A3 SportBack quattro 2.0, 110kw) was returned this week. Due to rather .. special circumstances I'm currently driving a Toyota Prius Plugin Hybrid instead. I reached 190km/h on todays morning commute a couple of times (late, after most commuters - very low traffic).

> Outside of cities you're limited to 100km/h (or less ofc - but 100km/h is the maximum you'll get if we ignore rare cases with 4+ lane roads and a solid barrier in the middle 120km/h

That's not quite correct. The speed limit is generally 100 km/h outside of cities, except when there are either two lanes (or more) per direction and a line between the two different directions or if there are less than two lanes per direction, but there is a sold barrier between them. In those cases there is no speed limit, just like on the Autobahn.

Thanks a lot. I learned something new today, after driving for nearly 20 years. That was suprising..

That said: The road in question certainly wasn't one of these - it looks like a random road between tiny "cities" (villages?). So 100km/h or less seems quite right here.

In Germany those two things are distinct. 250 km/h is very high speed but not necessarily speeding.