Why Your Brain Misreads Speed in Modern Cars

You get into your modern car, close the door, and suddenly… Quiet. You can actually HEAR the silence—total tranquility. The entire world is quiet for you. 

You can barely hear the engine, and the cabin feels sealed off. The road under you might as well be wrapped in velvet. Then the speedometer brings you back into reality because it shows that you’re going way faster than you thought you were. Isn’t it weird? It’s like your senses are a step behind the car.

You’re not careless, and you don’t have bad driving habits; this is just how modern cars are built. They make everything smoother, every noise and every vibration. 

You hardly feel the rough edges on the road, so your brain loses the very signals it’s used to. When you drive fast, you expect to feel it. The noise of the wind, the hum of the tires, the strain on the engine, it’s all supposed to be there. 

But modern cars take it all away, and your brain assumes you’re going slower than you are. 

How Modern Cars Change Your Sense of Speed

When you’re behind the wheel, your brain isn’t actually reading numbers on the dashboard to figure out how fast you’re going. 

Can you imagine how distracting that would be, glancing at that thing every second? Instead, it “looks” at what’s happening around you, like how loud the engine is and how quickly the scenery moves past your side windows. 

These signals are what your mind has depended on for years to decide whether you’re cruising or going a bit crazy. 

Modern cars take a lot of those signals away. 

The cabins are sealed, padded, insulated, and engineered to stay calm no matter what speed you hit. Don’t you hear much noise from the wind and the tires rolling on the road? Are they even there, or are you floating? Even the sound of the engine is nothing more than a low hum, and that alone can make you drive faster.

With so many cues filtered out, it makes sense that your brain thinks you’re moving slower than you really are. 

Once you accelerate, this all becomes even more obvious. 

You’d feel that pull in older cars, hear the revs, and actually sense the engine working. But it all feels super smooth (too smooth, some would say) in modern cars. The car picks up speed so fast, but you don’t get the physical feedback that would go with it, so the acceleration doesn’t quite register like it used to. 

That gap between what the car is doing and what your senses tell you can have an effect on the choices you make in the moment. 

If you aren’t aware of what’s happening, before you know it, you’ll be looking for professional guidance for severe traffic violations. Well, truth be told, if you DO find yourself in such a situation, you’ll definitely want an experienced lawyer who specializes in these types of laws. 

But for future reference, it might be best to drive more safely.

What You Can Do When Your Senses Fall Behind the Car

Unless you want to stick to driving nothing other than older cars, you’ll need to build new habits to stay in sync with what the car is actually doing. That doesn’t mean you should become paranoid or second-guess yourself. 

Here are a few small adjustments you should think about. 

The Numbers > Your Gut Feeling

The speedometer is there for a reason. 

You don’t have to stare at it like a maniac; no one’s saying that, but do take a quick look every once in a while to reset awareness and perception. Your mind might drift off onto something you’ve done this particular day, and while you’re driving on ‘autopilot’, your foot might press a tad bit more than usual. You might not feel it, but the difference in speed is not only fine-worth, but it’s also dangerous. 

This isn’t a dramatic adjustment, just something small you do to remind your brain that the calm and quiet environment around you isn’t the whole story. 

Over time, that number on the display will act as an anchor that will keep everything else in check. 

Use Landmarks to Judge the Changes in Speed

Your brain reads motion better when it has things to compare it to, so roadside details can help with perception that the car messes up.

Road markings coming underneath, signs coming towards you, and other details like these give you a clearer sense of how quickly you’re going. 

Leave a Bigger Gap Between You and The Car in Front

Modern cars feel smoother and steadier than they actually are. And because of it, it’s easy to underestimate how fast you’re closing in on the vehicle in front of you. 

Sure, you might think that there are lots of new technologies to help you with that, but these technologies can fail. So, a surefire way of staying safe is to leave a two or even three-car length between you and the car that’s in front of you. 

This way, you’re giving yourself enough room/time to make a decision and react.

Conclusion

Modern cars are designed to trick you into a sense of comfort and safety – which is completely fine, but only on the surface. All that comfort comes with a massive trade-off. Awareness and perception. Two critical traits that keep you from crashing the car.

It’s easy to lose track of what’s really going on on the road, plus it’s easy to overestimate your (or the car’s) abilities. Dangerous. 

It’s not all gloomy. Once you know this, once you’re aware of it, you easily get back on track.

Drive safe!

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