Speed will make accidents worse (deadlier). Acceleration will make accidents more likely. Sports cars flooring it from a stop, losing traction and hitting a telephone pole is like a whole genre of YouTube videos.
Acceleration does not make accidents more likely (well, technically, without the ability to accelerate, it'll be impossible to have a car crash, I guess?). Risky behavior makes accidents more likely. Not being able to control your machinery and still trying to push it to its limits makes accidents more likely. Here the problem is people who behave anti-social and ego-centrical. But that's behavior we like to generally encourage and then fix it by adding regulations around the most stupid things.
> Sports cars flooring it from a stop, losing traction
Traction control prevents this these days.
It still happens, of course, because idiots WANT to spin their tires and so turn off the traction control. But spinning tires != going fast. Usually sports cars flooring from a stop are interested in speed, not tire smoke, so the TC is still on.
That said, I know in my Model 3 Performance, I've floored it from a traffic light in the rain and had very little spin. It's insane how effective traction control is in an EV.
It is not the speed that kills, but the sudden deceleration hitting a tree.
Joking aside, acceleration can be a real problem. I ride a lot my motorcycle to work, shopping etc. I am closing to an intersection, I see a car that has to yield and when I am close enough, I am pretty sure I will not be hit even if the car is not yielding, which happens quite often (many drivers don't see motorcycles or ignore their rights). With a very high acceleration, the risk of getting hit is a lot higher.
This is an interesting question. If you’re accelerating and take your foot off the gas pedal, the car continues to accelerate until braking is applied. So if you accelerate very quickly to the speed limit, there would be a likely situation where you pass the desired speed unless you get on the brakes, which requires reaction time.
But yeah - I don’t necessarily agree with regulating it away for safety - people need to have personal responsibility. But regulations could make car companies optimize for other variables though (like distance and economy) which could be good.
If you take your foot off the gas, acceleration should effectively stop, right? F=ma, so with mass held constant and the only forces being friction, a is actually slightly negative. So max speed happens as soon as you release the gas pedal.
I'd love to delegate that part of driving to my car. Automatically maintain speed limit (+5 mph or so, or I'll be tailgated the whole way home) and following distance to the car in front of me. I'll just cover the brake and tap it if I see something wrong in front, at which time it can revert to manual speed control.
Bonus points for maximum performance acceleration without overshoot to the speed limit if I am the first one stopped at a red light when it turns green.
Adaptive cruise control is awesome, but the implementations I've used are unaware of the road's speed limit.
1. Low speeds, the car will accelerate a bit to where it moves at idle speed. (Usually very slow. Like 2-3 MPH.)
2. High speeds: If you lift off the accelerator, the car will slow down. In a manual transmission car, this slowdown is much more pronounced, and can often be used instead of the brakes in non-emergency slow deceleration conditions. In an automatic the slowdown is less, but still there.
Scalestein|3 years ago
0xblood|3 years ago
Sohcahtoa82|3 years ago
Traction control prevents this these days.
It still happens, of course, because idiots WANT to spin their tires and so turn off the traction control. But spinning tires != going fast. Usually sports cars flooring from a stop are interested in speed, not tire smoke, so the TC is still on.
That said, I know in my Model 3 Performance, I've floored it from a traffic light in the rain and had very little spin. It's insane how effective traction control is in an EV.
AdrianB1|3 years ago
Joking aside, acceleration can be a real problem. I ride a lot my motorcycle to work, shopping etc. I am closing to an intersection, I see a car that has to yield and when I am close enough, I am pretty sure I will not be hit even if the car is not yielding, which happens quite often (many drivers don't see motorcycles or ignore their rights). With a very high acceleration, the risk of getting hit is a lot higher.
mlac|3 years ago
But yeah - I don’t necessarily agree with regulating it away for safety - people need to have personal responsibility. But regulations could make car companies optimize for other variables though (like distance and economy) which could be good.
josephcsible|3 years ago
No it doesn't.
ectopod|3 years ago
timbeccue|3 years ago
aftbit|3 years ago
Bonus points for maximum performance acceleration without overshoot to the speed limit if I am the first one stopped at a red light when it turns green.
Adaptive cruise control is awesome, but the implementations I've used are unaware of the road's speed limit.
ilc|3 years ago
1. Low speeds, the car will accelerate a bit to where it moves at idle speed. (Usually very slow. Like 2-3 MPH.)
2. High speeds: If you lift off the accelerator, the car will slow down. In a manual transmission car, this slowdown is much more pronounced, and can often be used instead of the brakes in non-emergency slow deceleration conditions. In an automatic the slowdown is less, but still there.
thegrimmest|3 years ago
Unless you're going downhill this defies our known understanding of physics.
quonn|3 years ago