Road speed limits are based on standards that take in to account the environmental circumstances of the road - straightness, visibility, etc - as well as having a huge amount of safety buffer built in to account for human reaction time.
If self driving cars become ubiquitous, there is no longer a reason to have this buffer built in. Perhaps the whole idea of posted speed limits will become obsolete if the software determines the maximum speed in the moment for a certain risk tolerance.
If self driving cars become ubiquitous, there is no longer a reason to have this buffer built in. Perhaps the whole idea of posted speed limits will become obsolete if the software determines the maximum speed in the moment for a certain risk tolerance.