[StarrySky]

Is India the only country which mandates these speed alerts? More than a decade back, I was once stuck at Abu Dhabi after having missed a connecting flight. The airline arranged accommodation at a resort quite far away and also arranged taxis to take us there. The taxi I was in (it was a Toyota) gave these beeps continuously. At first I thought it was from the radio system used by the drivers to communicate. Then I asked the driver what the beeps meant. He coolly said - "The beep starts when I cross 160km/h".

[agambhandari]

I found the 80kmph repeated beeps to be the most pointless so I dug a bit deeper. I found the official document on ARAI website and you can have a look for yourself.
The rule only dictates for an audible warning once(only once) when you cross the 80kmph mark, so when you are cruising at say 90(speeds on most NH) or 110 the buzzer doesn't need to go off every 60 seconds the way it does in Brezza or Ciaz. This is just a ridiculous decision by Maruti itself to offer this pointless "feature"/Annoyance. My guess: They expect the driver to backoff the gas and thus get better Fuel economy

Also: Do note that the testing mechanism needs the AC and music to be off for the beep to be audible. My guess is that most makers with cars that can insulate you well enough from wind/road noise at speeds of 100-120, will keep the audible volume very low so that it can anyway be overcome easily by the AC or music system even at very low levels.

Also the document states that rear parking sensors would be standard. Good going ARAI!

Attaching a screenshot


Source: ARAI website

EDIT: As vipul_singh pointed out to me that in a document that the given warnings were 1cycle/2min minimum, it seems that the document i picked was a draft which has now been amended to mandate a repeated warning -_-
So there was actively a discussion to make the warning repeated for something that is absolutely normal on a highway.

Link to the latest rules

[--gKrish--]

A GPS integrated system with location based speed beeps would have been better. eg near schools, narrow roads etc.
On a related note, from my limited experience in observing the peak traffic, I believe most accidents in our region result from slow moving vehicles which hold up traffic behind them unnecessarily and leads to untoward incidents during overtaking.

Last week a guy in a motorcycle doing 20 in an relatively open strech of a two lane road was so engrossed in the conversation with the pillion that he occasionally turned his head to the side making his bike also go sideways scaling the width of the lane. Many went into extreme right of the oncoming lane to overtake this guy which was risky but even the more calm drivers would try to pull away from such vehicles and in the event of a crash they'll end up being the person who caused it.

A faintly sounding beep to remind to maintain ateast 70% of the limit should also be included

[ant_vas]

Interesting to read the comments in this thread. The speed limits buzzer is after all for our safety!



I for one like to drive around 100-120 kmph on the highways as i feel comfortable and confident of bringing the car to stop in case i need have to due to some reason. can i always maintain those speeds? hell no. with so many slow moving vehicles occupying right most lanes, two over laden trucks moving side by side as if having a conversation or random people of animals crossing the road out of no where, the average speeds usually come down to 60-80 kmph.


But yes there would be stretch on the highways where you might be able to do good speeds over and above 120 kmph.


a warning at 80 kmph only tells the driver that he/she is nearing the 100 kmph mark and the continuous buzzer sound after 120 kmph will ensure that the driver will be conscious of the speeds they are doing. I heartily welcome this rule by the govt.



on a side note, Punto Evo had this configurable feature even on the active variant where you can set the buzzer to go off when you cross a set speed. The car though had a speedo error of 10 kmph. so if you set the buzzer for 20 kmph you are actually doing 110 kmpl.


My current car Dzire ZXi+ though doesn't have any such feature and the speedo actually shows the correct speed. tested this using a GPS speed tracker app on both punto and dzire.

[vipul_singh]

Originally Posted by ant_vas

a warning at 80 kmph only tells the driver ....

But it is not *A* warning. The warning will keep repeating every two minutes. So, in a 6 hour expressway journey, it would have warned the occupants of the vehicle some 180 times (or 360 times, as per Maruti's implementation)!

[ant_vas]

But it is not *A* warning. It is a warning which keeps repeating every two minutes. So, in a 6 hour expressway journey, it would have warned the occupants of the vehicle some 180 times!

You are right. just read the standards document.


However my comment was based on the instagram video shared in one of the post on page 1

[kiku007]

What's the purpose of that round thingy with a needle, marked with numbers that shows real-time speed?

If one needs a beeper to remind what damn speed they are at, then they shouldn't be driving.

If one thinks a beeper is going to change the way people drive, then good luck.

Another one of the ill-conceived, no-evidence to support jugaad non-sense.

[typlo]

While they're at it, they should think about repairing the city roads and filling the potholes maybe?

Perhaps making speed limits appropriate to road & traffic conditions and better law enforcement is the way to go. The 120 km/hr alert is fine if that's what our country's roads can take but the 80 km/hr alert is way too obnoxious. Expecting a lot of new cars in 2019 at our beloved FNGs.

[blackwasp]

While I'm in a mixed boat over this - on one side I want our roads to be safer, but as mentioned by some, what about future roads with higher speed limits?

Maruti, if you are reading this thread, please put in a nice chime while you are at it. Initial D fans will connect with this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0AaHkAy-gI

[anish5225]

If 120 is legal the speed limit, why not impose a rule that all vehicles should be electronically limited to 120 kmph?

[DieselAddikt]

Originally Posted by kiku007

What's the purpose of that round thingy with a needle, marked with numbers that shows real-time speed?

If one needs a beeper to remind what damn speed they are at, then they shouldn't be driving.

If one thinks a beeper is going to change the way people drive, then good luck.

Another one of the ill-conceived, no-evidence to support jugaad non-sense.

Perfectly said my friend. I was wondering the same. Why beep? There is a huge speedometer in front of you. It has been designed to show what speeds you are doing. Or is this implementation meant for those unfortunate ones (with all due respects) who are blind?

99% of the people driving over the speed limits do so willfully. Sometimes it is safe to do so and sometimes it is unsafe too. But ultimately, the driver decides and takes a conscious decision/calculated risk. How can a beep alter my ability to do that? I don't see what a beep can achieve other than the fact that it will irritate you more as if the already existing chaos on the road was not enough. Why not make crash worthiness, abs, airbags etc standard instead of these cheap tricks?

[Gannu_1]

Man, I can't imagine how incredibly annoying this is going to be especially that 1-minute repetitive buzzer if someone's cruising above 80kmph!

80 kmph is a perfectly safe speed in many of the 4/6-laned highways and expressways in the country.

If this is a separate buzzer (which I doubt since it is linked to the speedo), the owners are headed straight to some FNG to get it disabled! In all probability, the buzzer is going to be located inside the instrument cluster (just like the seatbelt reminder/fuel reserve/service warning buzzers). And no sane owner would want to tamper with it fearing warranty issues.

At the very least, get rid of the 80 kmph one!

I wonder how the new Brezza owners are coping up with this?!

[HillyThar]

I remember the Toyota Crown taxis in Singapore in the 90's and early 00's also had an audible warning chime that kept chiming every 10-15 seconds or so if the vehicle crossed 80 or 90 kmph. It faded away gradually as the older taxis retired. All supercars in Singapore are speed limited by law though.

I am sure most car accessories shops will figure out a way to disable the warning chime almost as soon as its introduced, and I predict the first customers would be the VIP's like our politicians and judiciary that zoom along our highways at double the speed limit, they will get tired of the chime fast.

[drmohitg]

Did anyone notice how our industry leader jumped the queue to become the leader in dishing out the Cheapest and most Useless safety feature dished out by our government? Compare this to the earlier, almost on the edge of arrogance, interview by their head about the associated cost increases and the famed "scooter vs bare bones car safety logic".

Jokes apart this is what happens when you start considering all forms of audible warnings as a potent tool to promote safety. Instead they should have made it mandatory for seat belt warning to be present on all cars. My 2011 Altis had it for both the driver and front passenger. And it goes without saying that it compels the front passenger to belt up, just to make the annoying noise to go away. They could have made it mandatory for the rear seats too.

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by humyum

I think this should be an easy fix.

The buzzer is integrated with the cluster PCB which cant be disconnected easily. Perhaps, this can be done through SDT maybe, but the ruling also states that the feature must not be changeable, which I interpret at the customer or aftermarket level. But at the dealer level, the SDT gives many customization options, which are not otherwise possible. This might have the same story as well.