Comment by toss1
1 day ago
>>That seems like exactly the kind of thing that should be regulated away
Yes, and the regulation should NOT be limiting passing or requiring the slower truck to brake
It should allow a "Push To Pass" button that allows a 10mph boost for enough seconds to make a pass in a reasonable amount of distance so as to not create problems for other traffic.
Current technology would allow these to be easily limited to X uses per hour/day and even geo-fence the usage for safe zones (use could even be limited to passing lanes so the truck being passed cannot start a drag race to stay ahead). They could even require connectivity and disable it in poor road conditions.
The real people being inconsiderate are not so much the truckers (particularly the slower trucker failing to yield and let the other one pass in a reasonable distance), as it is the regulators who created this mess.
Using GPS to calibrate speedometers would solve this problem with fewer steps. GPS speedometers are accurate to 0.1 km/h.
That's no solution at all, and the tech is barely even lower than a passing option — both require detailed speed & time measurement, and having gps throttle governing 100% of the time is subject to all kinds of new issues where GPS isn't fully functioning, e.g., in dense trees, tunnels, cities....
And as to passing, the closer the two vehicles are in speed the loooonger it takes one to pass the other. Unless you get down to an absurd accuracy, one driver will notice he's got a little bit of pace on the other guy and will try to pass. And even with 0.0001% accuracy and 100% uptime (not going to happen), there will still be passing issues as some trucks may have issues where they aren't quite up to speed, but just a few km/hr under, and you're right back to the long passes.
Either outlaw passing, or allow it to happen at a reasonable pace.