So, California just killed a bill that would have required speed limit warnings on all new cars. While some enthusiasts are taking it as a win, the veto really happened because Governor Newsom thinks it might muddy the waters if California has its own regulations. Oh, the irony!
Personally, the only thing that concerns me about speed limit warnings is the fact that some of the cars with speed limit sign readers just sort of suck at their job. During the summer, I had a Ford F-250 press loaner and there were several times when the truck displayed the wrong speed. I’m with Stef Schrader here:
I mean, gosh, just take it from anyone who’s driven a car that puts the speed limit on the dash: sometimes they get it WILDLY wrong. Like, 30 on a big road, 50 on a neighborhood cow path kind of wrong.
Ford was considering a feature where fleet managers would be notified when the driver of a fleet Super Duty exceeded the speed limit, but how can you trust it when the truck can’t even figure out the speed limit correctly?
This morning, Matt wrote about how European automakers are having a darned hard time selling cars because nobody wants them. EmotionalSupportBMW gives a good explanation as to what could be happening:
This really wasn’t touched on in the article. But, the European home market has trended towards a situation that’s growingly not ideal if you happen to be in the business of selling expensive automobiles such as; anything with a star, roundel or four rings on the front. Namely, your home market is increasingly living in a more dense urban spaces, where do to investment in things like public transport, and multi-modal transportation. Your core audience either does not want your flagship, or is going car free. From Millennial and on-down, people and specifically wealthy young people are moving to denser and denser areas. Suburban and rural Europe, is dying. You have estimates of upwards of 80% urban population by 2050. This was the six-foot hoop market for the German lux-brands. MBZ may not be able to move an S-Class outside Shanghai, but Hans the investment banker living 32 kms outside of Frankfort was always there to trade his old one in for a new one. Now, Hans is riding his 12k euro e-cargo bike 2 km home to his loft, and stopping at Aldi every other day. Just for example, take a look at the show Industry. One character is shown owning a car. So, with that, Stellantis, because they seem like the only one that gets 1990’s Europe no long exist. And decreasing size is likely your best path to forward on home court.
Jason wrote a piece about how flooded EVs can sometimes go up in flames. It’s less than ideal, but AlterId has a real nightmare situation:
…if you see a Bolt or a Tesla or a Ioniq 6 or F-150 Lightning submerged nearby, maybe wade in the other direction.
BUT WHAT IF THE OTHER DIRECTION IS TOWARD A SHARK!!!!!
Don’t worry, I got you covered: Lure the shark into the submerged Bolt, enjoy tasty fried shark later.
Speaking about flooding, I feel we should end on a serious note. If you haven’t been paying attention to what’s been going on down south, you really need to. Entire towns hundreds of miles away from coasts have been entirely wiped from the face of the Earth in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.
There are people who haven’t had electricity, a cellular signal, or an escape path since the storm hit. To them, they might as well be on another planet. When the storm hit, I saw notifications from the state of North Carolina to consider all roads in the western portion of the state to be closed.
I have a feeling the nation will be hurting from Helene for years to come. If you wish to donate, the New York Times has an excellent list of ways you can help. Stay safe, everyone.
Top graphic base image: Ford
Sounds like Ford’s tech just sucks as usual. My GR Corolla reads all the speed limit signs perfectly. It does display them in red when you’re speeding, which is oddly annoying mostly because I have a hard time reading the red with sunglasses on. The warning is trivially disabled.
My wife & I just returned home from a 3000 mile road trip vacation in her brand new 2025 Toyota Camry XLE and it read all speed limit signs flawlessly. It even read all of the temporary construction zone speed limit signs with no problem. The XLE has the nice heads up display and it showed the speed limit signs there in addition to the main dash. The signs turn red when the car’s speed exceeds the posted limit. But I always drive 5 mph faster on the highway. We both love this car!
The how to help article is paywalled. Classy, New York Times. Real classy.
My daughter is up there and thankfully safe. I’ve considered driving up, but to do what I’m not sure. It seems like the state ends at Asheville right now, Old Fort if you’re coming from my way. As tenuous as the passage was at the best of times, I’d be astonished if it was actually passable right now.
Edit: https://www.bpr.org/bpr-news/2024-09-28/list-ways-to-donate-and-help-flood-victims-in-western-north-carolina-after-hurricane-helene
I’m honored. But that’s not an original idea, as the Edison’s choice between shark and electric vehicle was made in a speech back in June and analyzed on this very website. I suspect that if the speaker is successful the best choice for me would be the electric car, and I also suspect that the shark would choose it as well.
I haven’t been keeping up with the impact of Helene and was surprised when I found out how bad it was. It reminds me of what I’ve heard about Camille in 1969, which wasn’t identical meteorologically but also did a lot of damage far inland with something close to three feet of rain in Nelson County, Virginia, over just a few hours, with something around one percent of the county’s population killed or missing. Google it, or read this multi-part article from the 40th anniversary from back when my town still has a decent local paper, before it was bought by Tribune Publishing. Unfortunately the paywall will kick in after the first article, I think.
There’s also the Washington Post’s piece commemorating the 50th anniversary, which would only be one hit on your free article allowance. I’ve put it in this reply so my initial post doesn’t end up in auto-moderation limbo. And yeah, I get that I’m being hypocritical because decent local journalism might still exist if people were willing to pay for it.
Sent a donation to the Red Cross this afternoon Mercedes. We have family in NC, they are safe, but others can use the help.
I missed the speed limit reader article, but the problem can be worse than the bad ‘display.’ I had a rental (I believe it was a Jeep Renegade) that would adjust cruise control to the speed limit. So cruising along at speed on the highway, it would see an exit ramp speed limit and suddenly SLAM on the brakes to drop from like 70 to 35 for no obvious (at the time) reason. Basically made the cruise control unusable. Maybe it had a way to turn it off, but in a rental, I didn’t have time to figure that out.