As to the rest, yes, all major car manufacturers attempt to use mechanical or electronic means to limit the vehicle’s maximum operational speed to within the design limits of the various components. No doubt, were they to engineer a vehicle cabaple of propelling itself to 175 mph, but supplied tires rated only to R or S (106 and 112 mph, respectively, I believe), they would fall afowl of various regulatory requirements found in FMVSS (Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards) as well as increasing the risks that a jury, hearing of a horrific accident, would choose to ignore the fact that the driver was operating the vehicle at an illegal rate of speed when assessing liability, or, joint and several liability and a driver without significant assets could make the jury’s apportionment of fault largely immaterial.

If you want to read up on tire standards, I suggest starting with FMVSS 109 and 139. There was significant media attention during debate and passage of the “Tread” act as well, which used Ford/Bridgestone/Firestone tire failure/vehicle rollover allegations as its poster-child.

Certainly, there is significant interest from all sides, car and truck manufacturers, tire manufacturers, NHTSA, vehicle operators, etc. If big rigs and concrete trucks interest you, this link may be useful for another example:

http://www.truckline.com/NR/rdonlyres/0CB11B29-D85D-4E2E-B43D-7375E302CDFC/0/101606ATAPetition.pdf

As always, the opinions expressed here are mine alone, and should not be imputed to my employer.

I am not sure that I agree with you here. If the trucks are rental trucks, it would seem that the governor was either ordered on those particular trucks, or placed on them by the rental company. I have no issues with that at all. A company making a decision for their product is different from the government telling them what to do.

This same thing was discussed years ago concerning the sport bikes (motorcycles.) There was an unwritten “competition” as to which manufacturor had the fastest bike. After realizing the folly of the engineering costs vs the return, plus the inevitable lawsuits, the manufacturors got together and decided to place a speed limit on their bikes.

The market – not the government – is often the best way to decide these types of issues.

Justinian, not so very libertarian of you. You want unrestricted speed for yourself, but think others should be subject to legal restraint. Wanting more government for everyone else sounds like you just want to be the dictator yourself.

My speed at the time of the accidents was never over 25 mph. Yet I’m happy to drive 80+mph on highways when conditions permit. My top speed, off a race track, was about 135mph on a German autobahn. I do not recommend that speed for general driving on highways. Some highways, though permit one to drive very fast and quite safely. A governor would be a real nuisance under those conditions. I mean, Kansas and Wyoming are already incredibly boring states to cross. Adding an hour or two to the transit is simply cruelty.

Put governors on taxis. Put them on in-city trucks and buses. Maybe even on cars that work best in cities. But they don’t really belong on cars that do long-distance drives.

I seriously question the judgment of anyone who drives 130 mph anywhere other than on a racetrack.

Only if you can establish that the dollar cost of automobile accidents is directly correlated to top speed of your automobile. While high speed accidents are truly horrific, that may not be where the majority of costs are. One can do a lot of damage at 10 or 20 MPH.