[SurrealSoul]

Pretty cool, by establishing a top speed standard they could run reliable crash tests for the absolute worst case that the car could experience. Looking forward to the future of "No matter how you drive this car, it won't kill you"

[cowgoesmoo]

I don't think we'll ever see that in a road car unless we mandate 6 point harnesses, helmets, and HANS devices. No matter how big the crumple zone and how stiff the chassis is, 3 point harnesses allow too much movement and people will still die from neck injuries.

[ken]

People die every day in car crashes at far slower speeds than that. There's no way to guarantee a car crash won't kill you, even at normal highway speeds.

[mshook]

Plus if speed was really THE main factor, highways would be terribly dangerous. Or they're usually the safest when it comes to accident statistics.

So speed is not the main issue but it's a nice tool when you're a politician or you want to communicate.

For the Autobahn, wiki says:

In 2014, autobahns carried 31% of motorized road traffic while accounting for 11% of Germany's traffic deaths. The autobahn fatality rate of 1.6 deaths per billion travel-kilometres compared favorably with the 4.6 rate on urban streets and 6.5 rate on rural roads.

[SurrealSoul]

yeah bad phrasing on my end, knowing the max speed you could interact with a common obstacle (say a highway barrier) could lead to targeting harding to prevent fatalities, as opposed to general harding for all speeds.

Cars could still drive into lakes or off cliffs, but knowing the max speed a car could rear end another car may lead to minor enhancements that could save lives

[itslennysfault]

I guess this could be true for crashing into static objects, but other cars are in motion too and don't have speed limiters.