[vikash49]

Spotted this brand new Maruti Dzire Tour S at the local accessories shop and noticed this sticker prominently placed on the passenger door!





The owner of the car (who runs a small fleet of tourist taxis) was also present there, and he confirmed that all three cars that he had bought in the last week were speed limited to 80kmph. He had personally tried to take one over 80kmph and it couldn’t cross this speed limit in any gear!

Is this legit? And more importantly, is this even practical as interstate tourist taxis like this one need to travel long distances on State & National highway?

[w8763]

Our January 17 Bolero pikup came with this speed limit. For taxis it seems harsh , since many highways and expressways have higher speed limits. At least 100 kmph seems fine.

[blackwasp]

This is going to be enforced pretty strictly from what I heard. Tourist (yellow board) vehicles need to be registered every year. For this a separate fitness has to be done as well. Incase of existing vehicles, unless the vehicle is fitted with an ARAI/RTO approved speed governor, it won't be declared fit.

A very good move IMO. Taxi drivers don't have the discipline. The only way to enforce this is by compulsion. In my car, despite strictly telling drivers to stick below 80 km/h, they do overspeed. One solution I implemented is to set the GPS overspeed alert to send SMS to their mobile phone. They get annoyed with so many messages flooding their inbox and hence avoid over-speeding.

A good move from Maruti. My car will be due for re-registration in 2 months time. Will get a speed-governed fitted .

Originally Posted by vikash49

Is this legit? And more importantly, is this even practical as interstate tourist taxis like this one need to travel long distances on this highway?

Of course it is legit! Very few highways in India have a speed limit more than 80 km/h. Plus in case of an accident due to over speeding, the owner of the cab will end up paying out of his pocket for any damages as the insurance claim will be rejected.

[JayPrashanth]

Good move, but this is India. People may soon find a way (jugaad) out of this.

Cheers,

Jay

[Overlander]

Most of the fleet owners are progressively limiting their cars to a maximum speed limit. The other day, I boarded an Uber whose driver was telling me about this control on speeds. Apparently they get a warning first, and then subsequently penalized. The drivers are also called in for a session at their training centres to educate them of the perils of high speed.

But to limit new cars to such speeds, off the manufacturing block, is something that is short-sighted and myopic at so many different levels.

• What if it's required for a patient that needs to be rushed to a nearby hospital? We all know how our Ambulances are logged amidst urban traffic a lot of time.
  
• What if the car passes a site of accident? There may be patients required to be ferried.
  
• How about an unfortunate terrorism activity? The driver is not permitted to drive away as fast as he can?
  
• The last time I heard, there are a couple of well laid highways up North where the speed limit is in 3 digits.
  
• The driver may be called in for an emergency at home. What should stop him from reaching there as fast as he can.

I guess the point I am trying to make is, as humans we can't preempt all situations, there's a reason why the concept of stress testing is there. This kind of curb will definitely fail on one side of the spectrum.

[rakesh_r]

Originally Posted by JayPrashanth

Good move, but this is India. People may soon find a way (jugaad) out of this.

Cheers,

Jay

If the speed is limited in the ECU itself, I dont think the drivers will go for a "remap" or "flashing" the ECU since that involves serious money.
A good move I must say.

[sharktale]

The govt. is enforcing speed limitations very strictly on yellow board vehicles
Our family manages a couple of petrol pumps in Jharkhand and the Tankers were compulsorily fitted with the speed limiter at 60 kmph.

Without installing the governor, the fitness certificate of the tanker was not being issued.

I hope there is no workaround developed around this, as this is one feature which can definitely make our roads safer.

[hiren.mistry]

Originally Posted by Overlander

[*]The driver may be called in for an emergency at home. What should stop him from reaching there as fast as he can.

All over the globe speed limits are imposed with heavy penalties in terms of monetary fines as well points on your license. There aren't any exception made.
It's about time we get serious about speed limits. We have to start somewhere, taxis and public transport vehicles are the best starting points.

[Sankar]

This is being silently implemented here in KL since a few months. Much before the news broke out in major dailies. All yellow boards are now limited to 80KPH. Only speed restricted vehicles are being allowed to register as yellowboards.

Its not just Maruti.

[itwasntme]

Is it a ECU software restriction or a hardware add-on?

[saket77]

Good move! If they don't take the advice, restrict them. Most of the cabbies have been driving like maniacs on road for years and a lot of them have been involved in accidents. This move will certainly help to some extent. Regarding the highway travel, 80kmph is not exactly slow; especially when most of the highways are rated for 70 KMPH on an average. Even for expressways rated at 100 kmph, it's not exactly a safety issue to drive slower than the max limit.

In fact, I would also advocate to strictly enforce 40 KMPH speed limit for all school buses.

[Shreyans_Jain]

This is another positive-regressive move. While the idea isn't the worst in principle, the limits prescribed are too low. The government is spending lakhs of crores on high speed expressways, with the idea being to increase efficiency by cutting down travel time. We want cars to travel from Delhi to Jaipur in 2 hours and trucks to do Delhi Bombay in 2 days, and that's not going to happen by limiting at 60 or 80kmph. At that speed, our fancy new highways will basically be money wasted.

It will be more realistic to limit passenger cars to 110kmph and new heavy trucks and buses to 90kmph. Nothing less. Of course, exceptions can be made where necessary, like school buses or mining dumpers at 40kmph.

[ashutoshb]

The only thing positive coming from this is that, for the fuel economy, its going to be a boon for the taxi owner. On the highways, I am sure, the mileage would be pretty good. That, only if he or the driver doesn't go for the jugaad fix available.

But, the biggest beneficiaries here are the manufacturer of the speed governor and the RTO personnel. Only the companies approved by the RTO can fit the speed governors. A taxi owner can't bring his own. This means, money for the equipment manufacturer, money for the corrupt RTO officials, who granted the tender and for those who would do the inspection and pass the vehicle. In the taxi business, nothing comes for free.

About overspeeding.
# Is there data available, where it says that statistically, taxis are more involved in high speed accidents than private vehicles?
# Does the Govt think that the taxi driver cares less about his life than any other private vehicle owner?
# Does the Govt think that an accident at 75 kph is not deadly? What is the logic of fixing the top speed at 80kph?
# What about the public roads, where the permissible limit is more than 80? Going with the same logic, are the lives of private vehicle owners cheaper? Or does the government has full faith in the owners of the private vehicles? That there is not one idiot among them?
# If speed is the issue here, why doesn't the Govt limit all vehicles to the same limit?

Instead of concentrating towards better infrastructure for safer and faster travel of goods and people, why is the Govt going in the opposite direction? I think I know the answer, because money is involved!

Two examples:
A taxi in UP has to put reflective tape on all sides. The rate for these tapes is three times the market rate. The same 3M tape. But, I can't get it done myself, because the receipt has to come from an authorised vendor. Why such high rates, because the money includes the bribe which goes to the RTO officials.
And I don't even see the logic behind the reflective tape. If it is that important, why isn't it compulsory on private vehicles too?

Till recently, bumpers were to be painted in a particular too. Again, the rate the painter would charge would be three times more. Same story here as well. He has to give money to the RTO guys.

To me, it's just a stupid excuse to make money, nothing else.

[Dr.Naren]

All new Dzire Tour from factory are limited to 80 kmph. I had seen a circular few weeks back at dealership which mentioned to replace the ECU in all Dzire tour's to meet the new government rule of 80 kmph speed limit for taxi & other commercial vehicles. The circular had step by step instructions on how to remove the ECU, install new ECU and also how to pack the old ECU and send it back to factory. I wonder why Maruti was changing ECU instead of software flash with speed limiter.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/...le18441665.ece

[rbp1988]

Personally, I feel the biggest gain from this is going to be reducing the 'overtaking from the left' syndrome on highways. The amount of times you get honked at or headlight flashed while doing the speed limit on highways is insane!