Quote:
Originally Posted by jokinawa
Sorry for the wall of text and I am not trying to be combative.
If you set it to 65 and you are going a few under that due to the intentional speed correction you are technically being safer.
Since the actual speed is lower than the displayed speed then if you get a speeding ticket, you thought you were going much faster and this feature may have just saved you some cash. E.G. Ticket for 78 vs 75 in a 65.
Normally, at least in the US you should be driving in one of the right hand lanes unless you are passing. Many states even have laws requiring it. If people are passing you doing the corrected speed limit and giving you sign language, you are probably in the wrong lane. If you set it to over the speed limit (5, 10, etc) and you are being passed with sign language, you are still probably in the wrong lane. Co-existing with your fellow drivers is less about your speed being a few MPH/KPH lower than it is to being attentive and moving to the correct lane when necessary.
Now, although it is a safety feature, it is also most likely a legal and public relations feature. For instance, if you set your cruise control to higher than the speed limit and you get in an accident, at least you were not going as fast as you thought which is safer, allows BMW to argue that you set it significantly higher than the speed limit or modded your car if you try to claim something was wrong with the speedometer, and saves some reputation since you were not going as fast as you thought.
With all that being said. You know that the feature exists and you know it can be turned off at your own risk. I don't see the problem since you can set cruise control to whatever desired speed you want to drive at and typically that's faster than the speed limit for most people.
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Precision and accuracy should be valued. Additionally, this is not proving easy to get "turned off". The dealer and BMW have ignored my requests. I find it more dangerous to be preoccupied with doing percentage math at highway speeds. The delta is not constant and changes based on speed. It would be easier to adjust if it were, say, always 1 or 2mph over.
What logic would suggest that when a consumer buys a clock, scale or drill for that matter, they want a percentage off for minutes (so they are not late for appointments), pounds (so they eat less) or RPM (so they don't strip the screws)??? It's garbage. Give consumers valid information and allow them to make their own decisions with it. I have a Mercedes and Jag and they are all spot-on so I'm doubtful of a "legal and public relations feature." I also agree with the above comment that this fails as a safety "feature" since it requires some amount of continual driver distraction to convert back to reality.