This was mentioned in other threads already. Strangely enough, it does not affect mobs but seems to be limited to the cars participating in mission intro scenes, like Taurus and your 'ranha.

I have exactly the same problem. Is there anyone here who doesn't have it?

This may sound stupid, but how do you do that? Wherever I try to insert -glide in the target box in shortcut properties, windows says it's an invalid path or file. I've tried inside the quotation marks and outside and the same thing happens. What am I doing wrong?
edit: never mind, I just saw the Interstate76 glide option in the start menu program group. Tried it - didn't work.
"3D accelerator hardware failed to initiate"

You might have to run this game in glide mode from the startmenu and with the -glide added to the shortcut. In the target line add -glide at the end outside the quotation marks and have a single space between quotation marks and -glide also.

I also am encountering this problem. I tried virtually every setting with my graphics card through windows as well as within the game settings, tried using glide mode, and adding the -glide line to the game shortcut. No dice.
Considering how many are having this issue which makes the game so annoying as to be pretty much unplayable, it seems as if it just wasn't tested enough on modern systems.
Vista Home Premium
Athlon 64 FX-60
2gig RAM
Nvidia GeForce8800 GTS

edit: nevermind, didn't actually work. :(

As has been brought up in another thread, the reason things go wonky in the AI department is because the game is set to run at a specific framerate. Back in the day that the game was released, running at hundreds of frames per second was unheard of.
Try this out to see if it fixes Taurus' oddities:
Go into your control panel (NVidia or ATi, depending) and force VSync. If you're running NVidia, there's a way to apply this to ONLY i76.exe, so it won't bleed over onto your other games. There should be a similar setting in ATi, but I don't run that brand currently, so I can't be sure.
For color and / or crashing issues, check out WitchDoctorAD's suggestion here. Basically, set the shortcut to win 95 compatibility mode, and check all options with the exception of "Disable display scaling on high DPI settings". This will allow you to avoid the 'Desktop Resolution Menu' fix.
Hope this helps!

Tried all of the fixes in this thread, as well as using compatibility mode and I'm still having the same speed problem, which makes the game unplayable. So far, not happy with my purchase, and I've been really excited about this game, hoping GoG would get it working right the first try.
Vista x64
Intel Quad Core 2.4GHz
4 GB RAM
GeForce 9600GT

I get this problem on XP even with -glide. I have no idea how to fix it. Vsync is forced through Nvidia drivers as well.

I also get this problem on Win7 64-bit. I can't use the -glide or -d3d options as they result in "3D accelerator hardware failed to initialize" error. The forced vsync didn't work either.
It really makes the game tedious to play, since you HAVE to stay with Taurus in some of the missions and he only goes 30mph because of this. If you get impatient and drive up ahead, you fail the mission. Even in the very first mission, you hear the cries for help from the Wagon Wheel, but you have to hang back and wait for poor old Taurus and his damaged steering. It's just painful.

Unfortunately the VSync work around isn't going to work at all if you're not able to launch the Glide or D3D renders. If you're running in software mode, that means your CPU is handling all the graphics operations, and your control panel won't be able to enable VSync to limit your framerate. Since your computer is probably lightyears better than a 486/66, chances are that even in software mode you'll be running at about eleventy-bajillion frames per second, and that'll muck up the AI.
If you want to run in (or have to run in) software rendering mode, you might check out a CPU throttling program of some sort to pull the speed back. From various posts about the Tube-ter-webs, it looks like slowing the game down (while keeping it smooth and playable) is what will fix the AI.
As for the renderer crashes and initialization failures, I'm afraid I've no idea beyond the compatibility mode or 'Desktop Resolution Menu' fixes. Sorry :/

Yeah, that's how you do it. Problem is that it doesn't work for a number of people. Trying to use -glide or -d3d only results in "failed to initialize hardware acceleration" error and the game crashes. In the software accelerated version we get the wobbly wheels etc. so the game is unplayable.
Please fix this.