Yes, you can, normally for 6 months or 1 year if you go to their DMV and prove you’re only staying one year. There’s some really good advice on driving the autobahn in the replies here; it really is different. Stay out of the #1 lane unless you’re going really fast–my top speed has been 176 (mph, not kph).

The Nazi government passed the Road Traffic Act in 1934, limiting speeds to 60 kph (37 mph) in urban areas but setting no limit for rural roads or autobahns. In 1939, responding to fuel shortages, the government lowered the limit to 40 kph (25 mph) in town and 80 kph (50 mph) on all other roads.

Though Germany is the only country in Europe without an official highway speed limit, about 30% of the 8,000-mile Autobahn network already has some sort of cap, in many cases due to curvy roads or high levels of traffic.

The highest posted speed limit in the country is 85 mph (137 km/h) and can be found only on Texas State Highway 130.

Is the Autobahn safest? Research by the Federal Highway Research Institute states that the Autobahn experiences fewer vehicle-related fatalities than the U.S. This means this German highway experiences fewer deaths per billion miles traveled than American highways.

It is illegal to run out of gas on the Autobahn; it’s seen as a preventable circumstance and it leads to stopping, which is illegal. Entering and exiting is only allowed on the marked interchanges.

It is actually a driving offence to run out of petrol on some road networks in Germany. It is illegal to stop unnecessarily on the nation’s super-fast Autobahn roads and chiefs say running out of petrol is not deemed important enough an excuse to escape punishment.

Don’t break down on the autobahn However, it pays to double check your fuel gauge before entering the autobahn, as it’s illegal to stop unnecessarily – and that includes if you run out of fuel, as this is deemed to be something you can easily prevent.

Taking a closer look at Germany, federal and state statistics reported by Der Spiegel show that there 0.95 fatal accidents per billion kilometres driven on German autobahn sections with speed limits.

As a kind of gentlemen’s agreement between the German government and the country’s car industry, German automakers then limited their high-performance cars to a top speed of 250 km/h (155 mph), a rule that is still adhered to today for standard production cars.

The A5 Autobahn near Frankfurt am Main. The fact is that Germany’s autobahn system is an extensive network of limited-access freeways that can usually provide a driver with a speedy route from city to city.