Is it even possible?
Last month Volvo announced that all new cars manufactured by the manufacturer will be limited to a speed of 112 miles an hour (180 km per hour) following an initial announcement in March 2019. You won’t be allowed to go faster than this speed, no matter how powerful or sporty your car is (we’re looking at you Polestar).
Volvo is trying to reduce road deaths and serious injuries caused by Volvo cars and eliminate them completely in the coming years. However, 112 mph (180 km/h) is clearly a lot faster than the speed limit in many countries. Does that mean that the decision doesn’t make sense?
“112 mph still is fast, so it’s not going to be the death of speeding?” It’s not,” Malin Elkholm, the head of Volvo Cars Safety Center, said to Autocar in an interview. It’s a limit, and there is no reason to travel faster than 112 mph. We wanted to be serious about speeding. Everyone talks about it. This will open up a deeper dialogue about the topic.
Volvo wants the entire world to take speeding seriously, and change their attitude and behavior. However, there must be a balance between safety and freedom to move.
How can we balance freedom and safety? What is the road map? And how do we involve the skeptics? Ekholm said that the speed cap is the first step in determining what speed is safe. How can we help you maintain it? It wasn’t fun to drive fast 20 years ago because it was uncomfortable. Modern cars behave at all speeds and are amazing. How can we translate those signals that indicated you were driving very fast into modern context?
Does it make sense? It’s not clear, but we would love to hear from you in the comments below.