After Volvo announced this in 2019 and implemented a 180 km/h speed cap on new cars last year, it’s now Renault’s turn to set a speed limit on its cars. The French carmaker has declared that Renault and Dacia models will not exceed 180 km/h. The announcement was part of the Renault Group’s CSR policy roadmap and the role it will play within the Renaulution strategy, delivered at the company’s AGM last Friday.
The overall goal here, as with Volvo, is to help reduce the number of road accidents. Renault says that in Europe, the number of road fatalities reached 23,000 in 2019, and the top causes were excessive or inappropriate speed (30%), driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol (25%) and lack of concentration (20%).
Renault’s response is based on two key aspects: preventing accidents and assisting emergency services. The preventive safety programme operates in three areas: Detect, Guide and Act.
For Detect, a ‘Safety Score’ will analyse driving data using sensors located on the vehicle to encourage safer driving. For Guide, a ‘Safety Coach’ will process road and traffic data to inform drivers of potential risks on their route and will give real-time warnings on danger-prone areas.
Lastly Act, which will have a fail-safe mechanism that triggers automatically in the event of a clear and present danger. Examples of the latter given are a far too dangerous turn, loss of steering wheel control for a prolonged period and drowsiness. The ‘Safe Guardian’ will then slow the vehicle down, returning it to a “safe driving mode”.
Renault says that as of 2022, the Megane-E – previewed by the Megane eVision concept from October 2020 – will come equipped with an automatic speed limit adjuster, set by default. “The vehicle’s top speed will also be capped at 180km/h. The speed will also be capped on Renault and Dacia models, and will not exceed 180km/h,” Renault says.
Now, Renault is also known for its Renault Sport hot hatches like the Megane RS and Clio RS. Will there be a special dispensation for these performance models for say, track days? Then again, there’s plenty of fun that can be had without going past 180 km/h, and not every track is a high-speed Formula 1 circuit like Sepang. Note that only Renault and Dacia were mentioned, but not the group’s Alpine sports car brand. Renault’s F1 team has been rebranded to Alpine.
What do you think of this move? Do we really need to go so fast on the road? Share with us your thoughts, but before that, here’s Volvo’s rationale and our take on the issue.
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Speed isn’t the problem that causing accident.
It’s driver stupidity that cause accidents.
If the driver is stupid, he/she will still crash the car at 3km/hr, 10 km/hr, 30km/hr, 50km/hr, etc.
You don’t die if you crash at 3km per hour. You are also unlikely to kill anyone if you crash into another car at 3km/h. But if you crash at 180km per hour you are most likely to die or kill someone.
People who say speed doesn’t kill are usually the the stupid drivers they think they are not.
Also nobody cares if you drive at 180km/h and die. Maybe it will even be celebrated. But if you kill someone due to you speeding, people will mourn the loss of another life. And it will be unfortunate that you are not alive to realize your stupidity.
Yeah but how many fatal accidents do you know occur at 3kph?
Ah, looks like Volvo is a pioneer in this after all, who knew? :o
A 180kmh limited Megane RS? LOL. A flying Myvi will overtake it
180 vs the dial at 290km/h… Could use a dial with bigger fond to avoid 40% wastage where the needle can never touch ya
Before this, JDM cars already have this built-in 180 km/h speed limiter since the late 1980’s, but Japanese tuning companies like HKS do offer devices like the ‘speed limiter defencer’ to overide the speed limiter.
180km/h? i doubt most of the renaults and dacias cant even reach 130
Very funny. if speed is the root cause, then please set all your vehicle to 110km/hr only. Afterall, our speed limit also 110km/hr.