Speed Limiter

[FrancisJeffries]

I think a speed limiter addition to the car would be great. I have Speed Limiter and Cruise Control on my Merc. I hardly use the Cruise Control, but the Speed Limiter keeps me legal so I use it a lot.
I haven't got my i3 yet, but I suspect that estimating my speed by ear will be harder in it so Speed Limiting will be even more vital.
I can't understand why it isn't already available!

 

[RJSATLBA]

I've never driven a car with a speed limiter, only ones with speed warnings. If like a speed warning, the speed limiter has only one setting that requires a trip thro the settings hierarchy to change it, I should have thought that cruise control would be a better way of staying legal because all the cruise controls I've ever used could be reset to a new speed with one touch, allowing them to be changed easily as the speed limit changes. By contrast a single setting speed control, unless easily reset on the move, is only really useful for the highest speed limit which will be encountered. Using cruise to stay legal has a couple of other advantages, it's easily overridden to go faster if safety requires (eg to shorten what might be protracted overtaking where there is no escape route) and a constant speed will usually be more efficient.

The other option would be to configure the max speed for Eco Pro to whatever you normally use on your speed limiter. If I've understood the manual correctly, from a safety viewpoint, this has the advantage that it can be overidden instantly if necessary by flooring the accelerator just as you would for kickdown on an auto.

 

[I33t]

The other option would be to configure the max speed for Eco Pro to whatever you normally use on your speed limiter. If I've understood the manual correctly, from a safety viewpoint, this has the advantage that it can be overidden instantly if necessary by flooring the accelerator just as you would for kickdown on an auto.

We have a Citroen Picasso that has both limiter and cruise control. It works exactly this way - you can set a speed from the steering wheel but over ride it by mashing the throttle. Around town, a limiter is a much better device than a cruise control. On the highway, the cruise is better.

 

[Gonville]

The standard BMW control for the limiter option is as easy to use as the cruise control. Single button to activate and then same controls to set the speed as with cruise. Again "mash" the throttle to override at any time and same button to resume. If I remember from the test drive those same buttons are there.

There is also a max speed limit warning option with a boing. So I think BMW has Mercedes covered. ;-)

Better would be to link the limit speed to the speed limit camera detected speed as an option? (Rumour is that EU was going to mandate that for safety reasons in built up areas)

 

[elptex]

Surprised you don't use cruise control. Similarly, people are usually surprised when I tell them that I use cruise control 99% of the time. It is, without fail, the single best thing that can be done to increase gas mileage--all of the little fluctuations we would do otherwise add up to wasted fuel. My current car (2007 VW Passat 4-door 1.9 TDI) is rated for around 45 mpg. This morning's drive to work I had 61 mpg (~15 miles 70mph highway speed, ~15 miles 30-40mph speeds). You betcha I had cruise set on 30mph.

 

[Gonville]

Cruise control and ECO-pro are the absolute bees.

535d nearly matches the VW.

 

[Gonville]

....must have been a tail wind...

 

[agj]

I think a speed limiter addition to the car would be great.

The i3 does have a speed limiter. Well, kind of ... Just engage EcoPro mode and the car will automatically be limited to 110 km/h (+/- 68 mi/h).

You can even change this value; go to main Menu, then EcoPro sub-menu. Among other things, you can tell the car what is the authorized top speed when EcoPro is engaged.

 

[Lecram]

My previous two 5-series had both cc and limiter. As the i3 has a adaptive cc, I don't need the limiter as it limits itself.
I used the limiter at the 5 series a lot in heavy traffic.

 

[ritchiem]

I have this feature on my Renaultsport Clio and it is the BEST feature for town driving. Living in London,UK the speed limit is 20mph across most of the city and the place is covered in speed cameras.

Having the car set to 20mph max with a limiter gives you more time to focus on crazy bicycles and pedestrians. Cruise control is just dangerous in town. The key difference being if you need your foot on the accelerator to go with a limiter so you still have control over your speed.

I'd probably drive straight over to the Camden i centre and by an i3 today if they had that feature.

 

[janner]

Drive assist plus already identifies the speed limit. Would be good to be able to select a 'keep within speed limit function'.

 

[Rybhen]

Up. I entirely support this. The I3 should have speed limiter.
BMW just need to source this from one of their OEMs for the i3 gen. 2 or whatever will come next.
The i3 is currently missing a lot of these functionalities that many other 'city' cars have.

 

[jadnashuanh]

The adaptive cruise control does work in city traffic, but it also does have a minimum engagement speed of 20mph. But, once engaged, will slow to a stop if the traffic calls for it. The speedometer seems to read about 2mph fast, so at an indicated 20mph, you're actually going about 18.

 

[alohart]

The adaptive cruise control does work in city traffic

Adaptive cruise control works fine for me as a speed limiter in city or highway traffic.

 

[janner]

Just to clarify. The speed limiter gives me control over the car speed up to the speed it it limited at. My ACC doesn't do that.

 

[alohart]

Just to clarify. The speed limiter gives me control over the car speed up to the speed it it limited at. My ACC doesn't do that.

Good point!

I use the ACC speed limit control switch aggressively to change the set point by 1 or 5 mph per click, usually as the speed limit changes, and frequently turn off ACC temporarily to decelerate or stop if there's no vehicle ahead or if I want to control the speed with the power pedal (f.k.a., the accelerator or gas pedal). So I drive most of the time without my foot on the power pedal whereas with a proper speed limiter, I would have to drive using the power pedal which I don't prefer.

Nevertheless, I can understand the utility of a speed limiter.

 

[janner]

I'm not sure of the situation with speed trap cameras in Hawaii - it was 1995 I was last there and I didn't drive. In the U.K. The situation can be very bad and the risk is that in driving around town you spend so long watching the speedo and looking out for cameras that you don't have your full attention for the child that runs into the road or other such things. The speed limiter once set gives me a full attention mode. I had it on my last two Mercedes and I still miss it two years into my i3 ownership.

 

[starkiwi26]

i just got my i3s (with active cruise control) and disappointed to find out no speed limiter function... I have this in much smaller and cheaper car..

do you manage to get this work on your i3?

thanks

 

[CharonPDX]

The only downsides - and what I see as one of the major stumbling blocks for self-driving vehicles - are suddenly changing and/or variable speed limits. Specifically school zones.

Around me, there are a couple places where the "regular" speed limit is 45 MPH, and 20 MPH in school zones. But it's only 20 MPH during certain times.

In some areas, it's "When children are present" - so the car would need to determine if children are present.

In some, it's "When lights are blinking" - at least that has an obvious signal that can be identified.

In some, it's "M-F, 7A-4P" or "School days, 7A-4P, or "School days, 7A-10A, 2P-4P" or variations. And some signs abbreviate it differently, have different active hours, etc. That means the car has to determine if it's valid or not. And "School days" is *SUPER* tough, since you may have some schools in session on some days and others not. (I live near where two different school districts boundaries are, and one starts 3 weeks before the other.)

And you don't want to get it wrong in EITHER direction. Obviously, you don't want your car going the faster speed when it should be going 20 MPH; but you don't want to go 20 when you should be going faster, either. And on mine, the automatic speed limit detection always sees the "20 school zone" and changes the on-screen to read 20.

Lastly, the BMW system still gets it wrong fairly often. I have one 20 MPH sign near me that it consistently reads as *70 MPH*. Yeah, that's not a mistake it should ever make. I've also had the reverse on the Interstate freeway - it reads 20 MPH when it should read 70! I wouldn't want my car slamming on the brakes on the interstate because it thinks the speed limit just got 50 MPH slower.

In theory, it sounds like a great idea - but it would require driver confirmation every time. Or a *MUCH* smarter system.