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As I understand it, AASHTO rules set design speeds based on worn-out 1950s bias ply tires in the rain, and assumes your sight distance is limited by pretty much the lowest driver position in the lowest sedan ever made (which means design speeds have been going DOWN as cars have been getting more capable). It's crazy conservative, which is why I once saw a curve speed I used to joke was appropriate for a dump truck in a blizzard greatly exceeded without any drama by a literal dump truck in a blizzard.
To be fair, a large part of stopping sight distance is the built-in full second of driver reaction time, which is independent of car technology.
Not anymore, emergency auto braking is becoming pretty common.
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Yeah, if that was at all real the roads I've traveled on doing 65mph or more with sub-second following distances would have been demolition derbies instead of merely ridiculously stressful. (As you would expect, traffic goes from that unstable state to zero with not much warning). Designing based on my father's Oldsmobile with his late father driving doesn't result in reasonable speeds.
Well, as long as you can see multiple cars ahead it's a little safer.
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