While the chaos surrounding Brexit continues on, the European Commission is pushing out regulations continuously, and the latest one means that from 2022 all new cars will have to have an Intelligent Speed Assistant (ISA) built in.
Like the article we wrote recently, Volvo is leading the way in this, as they have already started producing top speed limiters for al cars.
Amongst all of this, industry experts are raising concerns that these new speed limiters are actually unsafe.
EU regulations
Back in May 2018, the European Commission put forward a proposal to introduce a speed system that would use GPS and then digitally limit the speed of the car. Along with other safety measures, this was proposed as a way to reduce the 25,000 deaths a year on roads across Europe.
Some may be currently questioning the relevance of this article, given the current Brexit situation; however, the Vehicle Certification Agency stated that all new EU laws would be mirrored, regardless of any outcome.
Along with the ISA, the EU also released a list of all additional safety features that have to be included which are:
- Advanced emergency braking (cars, vans)
- Alcohol interlock installation facilitation (cars, vans, trucks, buses)
- Drowsiness and attention detection (cars, vans, trucks, buses)
- Distraction recognition / prevention (cars, vans, trucks, buses)
- Event (accident) data recorder (cars, vans, trucks, buses)
- Emergency stop signal (cars, vans, trucks, buses)
- Full-width frontal occupant protection crash test – improved seatbelts (cars and vans)
- Head impact zone enlargement for pedestrians and cyclists -safety glass in case of a crash (cars and vans)
- Intelligent speed assistance (cars, vans, trucks, buses)
- Lane keeping assist (cars, vans)
- Pole side-impact occupant protection (cars, vans)
- Reversing camera or detection system (cars, vans, trucks, buses)
- Tyre pressure monitoring system (vans, trucks, buses)
- Vulnerable road user detection and warning on the front and side of the vehicle (trucks and buses)
- Vulnerable road user improved direct vision from the driver’s position (trucks and buses)
A lot of these are already included in vehicles or would have been already, but some are more controversial than others.
The alcohol interlock installation, for example, will have to be fitted to all cars but will only affect those who have been convicted of drunk driving. Once their driving ban has been lifted, their car will have a breathalyser fitted for a set amount of time which they will have to use to get the car working, discouraging them from repeat offending. 12% of previous offenders will go on to drink drive again, and three out of ten high-risk offenders will go on to drink-drive a second or even third time.
Commissioner Elżbieta Bieńkowska, responsible for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, said: “Every year, 25,000 people lose their lives on our roads. The vast majority of these accidents are caused by human error. We can and must act to change this. With the new advanced safety features that will become mandatory, we can have the same kind of impact as when the safety belts were first introduced. Many of the new features already exist, in particular in high–end vehicles. Now we raise the safety level across the board, and pave the way for connected and automated mobility of the future.”
Objections
Along with the Big Brother argument, industry experts such as the AA, have come out against some of the proposals, citing them as unsafe. In a statement to the Mail Online, Edmund King, AA president, said: “When it comes to Intelligent Speed Assistance the case is not so clear. The best speed limiter is the driver’s right foot and the driver should use it to do the right speed in the right situation.
The right speed is often below the speed limit, for example, outside a school with children around, but with ISA there may be a temptation to go at the top speed allowed which may not be appropriate.
Sometimes a little speed also helps to keep safe on the road, for example, overtaking a tractor on a country road or joining a motorway.
Dodgem cars are fitted with speed limiters but they still seem to crash.“
The concept of a car being able to stop you from driving over a certain limit seems certainly peculiar but could this perhaps being the slow introduction of autonomy? All of the new safety features introduced are more autonomous. Are we slowly being stripped of our freedom to drive?
What are drivers saying?
Last week, when we published our article on in-car monitoring systems, we had plenty of responses from members protesting the move to autonomy and big brother taking over. George Orwell’s 1984 is a frequent reference that people use to show the state the world is heading towards.
Surely the question here could be asked is “If autonomy saves lives, should we accept the eventuality of it?” No accurate statistics exist on the safety of autonomy vs humans but we know human error and misjudgement account for the majority of accidents and so the introduction of widespread autonomy in vehicles could potentially be a life-saving exercise.
Autonomy could save lives and also enable those who are house ridden to get back on the roads as the car can do a lot of the driving for them. The possibilities and applications are endless but it requires a careful balance of introduction and not overwhelming us all.
What do you think of the new laws? Are there any that raise concerns? Do you think autonomy is a good thing? Let us know below
Autonomous vehicles will automatically obey speed limits so if manually driven vehicles don’t there will soon be chaos. But I for one will miss rental vans tearing up the outside lane of motorways at ninety.
What is the point of Speed Limiters which can be easily overridden?
How will these vehicles integrate with the slope head, knuckle dragging idiots who tailgate and scream abuse at you when you obey the speed limit?
Autonomous speed control requires a major advance from the current situation which occurs with navigation systems. There are many locations where a 30 MPH local street runs alongside a 60 or 70 MPH major road. My navigation system easily picks up the 30 MPH limit while driving on the main trunk road. and obviously provide an erroneous indication of the speed limit. Are these new systems going to be sufficiently accurate so as not to be affected by this problem? If not then they will automatically slow the car from the Trunk road limit down to the local street limit which could actually be only 20 MPH – a rather dangerous situation on a major road.
If yours does this there is something wrong with it. I’ve never had this experience with mine during the two years I’ve been using this system.
Interesting, this is exactly what happens, I have a 2018 Range Rover, setting the auto speed assist is a nightmare, it works 70% of the time but exactly as you say, driving on a 60mph dual carriageway near me with a slip to the side with 30mph signage, the car camera picks these slip road signs up as they are very close to the side of the dual carriageway where the regular signage is placed. The car always picks it up and rapidly limits my speed to 30 rather than 60 so there is a massive deceleration. The systems currently installed are still in very early days and can cause accidents rather than prevent them
The Intelligent Speed Assistance system can be overridden by pressing the accelerator – just a tiny flaw in the way it is designed to regulate speed.
This is a big worry to me. This will rapidly become non-overidable and before we know it you will be getting fines through the post for the most minor of infrigements, (real or caused by a system glitch). I really think we need to be seriously loooking to remove a lot of the “driver aids” not adding more. Modern cars have so many distractions built in these days that there aes more and more people driving around thinking that the car wil sort out all their problems for them.
I can see there being a sudden drop in car sales and a huge swaith of the population holding off buying new cars so that they can maintain their autonomy. Their seems to be an assumption by Politicians etc. that everyone wants automation and control taken away from their driving. nobody seems to ask the question of everyday motorists, “do you want this?” The European Union has this mythical “Target Zero” for road deaths which sounds laudible but, in my opinion is nigh on impossible, not without taking away just about evey personal choice people hve with regard to transport.
I am glat I am heading towards the twilight of my days when I can realistically look to buying a couple of deacent cars without all the clap trap attached with the intention of running them to the end of my days…….
Drivers won’t be losing any autonomy with a speed restricted car as speed limits need to be observed. All the driver will be losing is the ability to drive badly. When people are killed by speedy vehicles there is always a massive outcry by the public , so why would you not want to stop such needless death. Humans are selfish generally and don’t observe speed limits.
There is a large chunk of idiots behind wheels these days, the only thing “most times” that stops the idiot ploughing through you is self preservation, will a software programme have the same “feeling” of self preservation written into it when it comes across a situation not written by programmers, MMMMm think not.
I mean since Windows 95 we don’t see software glitches and crashes any more,,,, Do We?
Car driving systems that can do this are neural nets, which don’t work like you think they do. They are not programmed in the standard way, but *learn* how to react. They are taught how to drive. So where there are gaps in the neural nets knowledge, the system will still be able to react in a valid way, in much the same way as a human does when encountering a never before encountered situation. Of course, the tech is still in its infancy, there’s a way to go yet.
Neural nets are hardly infallible. We studied them at University and there was a classic example where a net was trained to detect concealed tanks in a series of photos. Once it mastered the original set it was given a new lot and much to the suprise of the developers it failed utterly. The reason? All the photos of tanks in the original set were taken on sunny days.
61508 and derived safety standards specifically prohibit the use of black box artificial intelligence for SRECSs.
So they learn. When? After they have killed that child!!
Ho Hum, James,
I’m actually an expert in Artificial Intelligence. And, while what you say is partially true, i.e. that a Neural Network is capable of autonomous learning, there’s no guarantee that what it learns is correct.
AI research is littered with examples of machine learning gone wrong. I wouldn’t trust an AI system to drive my vehicle, even if it was a Challenger 2 army tank! Just look at the AI system that crashed 2 passenger jets because the designers thought their system knew better than 4 experienced pilots.
+1 Something must be done about the increasingly lawless roads. I live in a 20 mph zone and regularly have idiots of all ages driving at 40 + thru the area.
Ges
Whilst I don’t disagree that speed limits should generally be adhered to. The point I am making is that I do not like, nor do I easily acceed to the premis that we all need to be observed and controlled 24/7. Where, when & why I go places is my business and no-one else needs to be looking over my shoulder all of which this new technology will be doing.
I hope you will agree that speed, in its self does not kill, it is inapropriate speed that generates problems. there are times when 30 or 20mphlimits are nonsensical and it is difficult to get people to comply with them due to lack of percieved hazard because they do not think that they are appropriate. Similarly there are sections of road which are at the national limit (60 MPH for non dual carriageway incase of doubt) where 30mph is more than appropriate due to the road conditions, layout and driver skill levels. This is where common sense should prevail, sadly common sense is being systematically bred out of our population due to over reliance on electronic aids and systems.
I would question the logical connections you’re making.
Limiting speed will not stop bad driving. Inappropriate speed is an aspect of bad driving, but that is not the same as driving at speed. Driving at 25mph in lane 3 of a free flowing motorway is probably far more dangerous, and more likely to lead to a catastrophic accident, than doing the same speed in a 20 zone. By the same token, doing 25 in a 30 zone may be too high for the conditions at that time, something these systems cannot yet take into consideration.
Similarly, driving at 70 on a motorway at night when it’s foggy and raining, would be fully legal but incredibly dangerous, i.e. NOT ‘appropriate’. There’s no automation system in the world that can assess road conditions like the human brain.
Except that speed does not and has never equated to bad driving. Bad driving can cause ‘inappropriate’ speed, but speed per se isn’t bad driving. Think on it. Speed limits are mere opinion, which is why they’re round numbers, and different in different countries (and where they have Km rather than miles). Also, when driving, a good driver is constantly assessing the environment around them, controlling the car appropriately. Speed is one OUTPUT of that process, not an input.
Bring it on. Totally 100 % agree.
That should quite our roads with these yobs who think the sound of a noisy exhaust is rather cool.
Idiots.
No one will buy a new car and hold on to their old one for longer.Disaster for the car industry with thousands of redundancies!
maybe ban cars altogether. Also sleeping- most people die in their sleep
Bad idea. I’d rather see continuous law breakers having their licences confiscated for longer periods, even for life, than have the vast majority of law abiding drivers suffering yet another civil infringement. Soon, it will be easier and safer just to give up work and stay at home.
Not enough police these days to get dangerous drivers off the road so some automatic restrictions are needed.
Ges
I strongly agree with your first statement and even more strongly disagree with your second. Put th Police back on the roads and the second point becomes derastically less necessary. Electronics do not catch serial offenders, drunk & drugged drivers and general vagabonds other than at a most basic level. What pesents the bigger danger on the road, a driver on a clear road doing 10% ver the speed limit or a driver smashed out of their skull on drink or drugs? Don’t try to fool yourself with the argument that the new proposals will make the roads safer.
Isn’t that the argument though to have more road policing rather than autonomous interference with driving?
I noted a while back that the rate of reduction of road deaths *decreased* when traffic policing was replaced by speed cameras under the “speed kills” campaign. That means more people died than would otherwise have done. Unintended consequences?!
maybe ban cars altogether. Also sleeping- many people die in their sleep
We will all become robots to the E U .’s dictatorship. The car is to get many workers from A to B. All the autonomy in the would will not stop accidents. Only cause more. The drivers will not be alert as they will be relying on the “Big brother” Lots of accidents are caused by drivers from other countries who drive on the opposite side to the UK. Plus drivers becoming tired.
I have both adaptive speed limiter (ISA) as well as adaptive cruise control. The speed limiter primarily uses cameras to pickup road signs and GPS if they are not available it’s a pain I have tried it around town several times it does make it difficult to overtake a vehicle doing 40 in a 50 limit. As for the cruise control that is great set the speed and it will keep it unless the vehicle in front is slower when it adjusts, mine will also stop and go in traffic so it takes the pain out of traffic queues, however it uses more petrol than I would as when the way in front is clear it accelerates hard up to the chosen speed.
You only have to look at the two very graphic demonstrations from the Boeing 747 MAX 8 to see the potential consequences for automated safety systems taking control from trained human operators. While ISO 26262 should catch software errors through thorough verification and validation the same is true of the DO-178B process for aviation, and that is if anything a more stringent and rigorous standard.
From what I’ve heard, that Boeing problem was not software error. It was human error; those planes were different from others, they had an extra feature which required staff training to use it, as the company made clear; either they weren’t trained in those cases, or they were trained but made an error in spite of that.
So why, today, have Boing announced a software fix to address the problem?
A neural net fix eh, to us a plaster
Boeing problem was firstly that the automated stability system relied upon a single (!!!) sensor – so if this was faulty for any reason the pilot needed to take over. Normal standard (both within Boeing and Airbus) is to have 3 sensors – and if one goes faulty the other two will override it and report a fault. However this was a new system and the procedures for manual override did not form part of Boeing’s pilot training programme for the aircraft. Looks like Boeing’s fault at every level! Not quite sure how a software fix will correct the problem?
So back to cars – are we going to have three systems installed in every car in order to provide this fault detection/failsafe? And are drivers going to need training on how to override the system?
I think Boelng played down the additional training required in order to avoid the 7need for new Type Certification. After all it’s a 737 isn’t it!
They trust technology to drive more safely than we do but can we trust that technology? My son works in a support centre for leased cars & told me one case where the automatic breaking system on a VW Golf activated for no reason whilst driving at 70mph on a motorway. The result was a serious accident that would have killed the occupents two children, had they not left them with grandparents. Certainly my son will never trust any automatic breaking technology after dealing with this incident. Those bringing forward EU legislation to the EU parliament are appointees who have never produced any manifesto that this was their intention but in any case they are not answerable to any electorate. Do they even have the technological background to be able to judge that this legislation will save more lives than it will cause to be lost? How can we remove these establishment figures from the positions of power that has been given to them by the establishment; not by us. There is no democracy in how this EU is governed. Instead of trusing us as adults, they treat us like children.. attempting to control every aspect of our lives. Even if we manage to leave the EU, apparently it won’t destroy the beast & more to the point the influence it will still have over us.
How about technology to stop tailgating?
It already exists for motorways and dual carraigeways at least. Called a steering wheel in conjunction with a mirror, use it all the time be aware of what is coming up behind me, pull over as soon as is possible and the potential tailgater simply goes past me.
Why the thumbs down???? Being tailgated is 100% voluntary. I don’t get tailgated because I don’t get in the way. It is so easy and people that get frustrated with tailgating must by definition get in the way a lot and there is simply no need for it. Just let them go. I cannot think of any reason not to??????
You cannot trust the majority of humans to obey the road safety laws so I think that some form of autonomy is needed.
‘Big Brother’ goose-steps inexorably onward it seems. Yet another good reason for leaving the damned EU. A word of warning to all those bungling bureaucrats in Brussels however: “Beware the law of unintended consequences”! I foresee the number of head-on collisions caused by slow overtaking rising alarmingly if this further example of unnecessary over-regulation is enacted.
Surely the most likely need for a bit extra speed is when the overtaker has made a musjudgement and needs, momentarily to exceed the speed limit. How smart is the intelligent system going to be then?
So that’s going to stop a crash Hmmm don’t think so do you , they will find a way to remove them they will find a way are they going to do that to police cars as well , it still won’t stop people getting killed or hurt will it I heard that Volvo were going to restrict Thier cars to 112 mph what the hell is that going to achieve , well nothing is it the European Union are very controling or trying to be thank God when we have left the s**t pit I am a brit not European never have been and never will be bunch of clowns the lot of them
Too much emphasis on speed. A speeding motorist has never scared me. Those using mobile phones or driving while under the influence scare me regularly. That’s where the emphasis needs to be.
This obsession with speed is simply bonkers. I think the figure was 25% of deaths on the road are where speed was a contributory factor but whatever the number is, it was well below 50%. Also there will be no stats on the number of accidents avoided because speed allowed the vehicles to pass by safely.
Why don’t we spend time on what causes most of these deaths instead of the minority!
Speed alone causes very few accidents, it is BAD DRIVING by the speeder or others that make it into an accident such as not paying attention, non use of mirrors, incorrect use of indicators, argueing with the kids in the back, the list goes on. Even some still texting on a handheld phone!
Why cannot we just insist on drivers concentrating on driving??
Back to the phone law a minute, when this was first introduced, so you could no longer legally use one, instead of talking on the phone visibly allowing the driver still to see what was going on whilst doing so, people started texting on their lap instead so they couldn’t see what was going on. Everything has consequeces and good intentions don’t always have the desired effect. The more driver aids and restrictors that come into vehicles to try and make things safer, the less people will pay attention to the job of driving, simple laws of nature, less danger = less of a need to be alert.
The stats may change with speed being less of a factor but the people will still die because you haven’t addressed the real issue of bad driving.
Most of the c**p on my new Golf I try to ignore. I used to drive far more safely without all the noises emanating from the technology. Too much information is a total distraction.
Intelligent devices? Mmm. Methinks of an incident in the States a few years ago involving a Tesla I believe. That one wasn’t so smart was it. Couldn’t distinguish an object.
Given my experience of City Safety in my Volvo I have no faith in these automated “safety” systems. With it on if I turn quickly into a parking space with a hedge at the end it slams the brakes on nearly planting my face in the steering wheel. It’s great that it might stop me hitting a pedestrian stepping out in front of me or a car that stops suddenly in a queue….if I wasn’t paying attention…but the over-sensitivity and false triggering in situations not expected by the designers mean I’ve just ended up switching it off (at least I can still switch it off).
For those living in the more densely populated areas the speed limitation will be yer another example of those making rules are brainless. By the time these are introduced there will be so much more traffic, the majority of the time its effect will naturally reduce the speed of every one. None of them seem to have the capacity of any lateral thinking.
A problem with many motorways is too many junctions where traffic gets on at one and off at the next. The M25 needs another ring road some distance out side its current perimeter that links to the other motor ways.
If they wish to influence the industry and its design of vehicles do something useful. Redesign the rear ends such that all lights are located at the high points such that anyone unfortunate to be struct from behind, all the lenses are in an area that would generally escape damage. Make the lower section independent of the chassis such that the body work is not affected.
Instead of all the fancy electronics that the villains have the capability of by passing, do something with the drivers seat. Construct it such that on leaving the vehicle the upright back can be tilted forward and mechanically locked whilst leaning against the steering wheel.
Finally, where suitable, increase the speed limit to 80 MPH that is the rate of most drivers.
Driving slow is worse than going a few mph over. Causes more road rage than anything.
If there is a limit imposed it should be set at 15% above the limit so that as the man from the AA said it enables drivers to accelerate out of trouble like overtaking and joining a motorway. It is very annoying on 2 lane motorways and dual carriageways when trucks with speed limiters are trying to pass one another. They can go on for miles side by side and traffic builds up behind them. I cant see the Germans taking to this easily where on parts of the Autobahn have no speed limits. It will also knock the new car market as drivers will tend to keep their old cars with no limiters much longer.
The technology will only limit your speed to the allowable speed on the road your are driving on, so if there is no speed limit on the road you are on, your car will not have its speed limited, will it?
Can you tell me of an unlimited public road in the uk apart from the Isle of Man?
If You go back 60 years ago ,( cars did not go that fast ,) Thy would rattle like a tin can if you put your foot down ,thy where cold with windows that you had to wind up & down ,And thy did not have so much demonstrations fitted into the car like today’s new cars have ( Sat naves , cameras , Mobile phones ,cup holders , cigarettes lighters ,ashtrays , all the nobs and switches that cars have today the list goes on , and a lot of people would go out for a drink in their local pubs after work and have a pint then go home but thy new how much a measurement was and how much thy drunk that night then get in their cars and drive home some would get coat by the polices ,
Now today people drink in the house and thy do not know how much thy are drinking , thy drink 4 cans and bottles of wine and a sorts of vodka or other shots ,that’s the measurement thy drink and go into a very comfortable car and drive and go to sleep on motorways and other roads and crash , cars have gone to fast and far to comfortable for drivers
“the Vehicle Certification Agency stated that all new EU laws would be mirrored, regardless of any outcome. ” That’s the trouble with Brexit, the EU make the laws and we have no say in it. Just who is (will be) running this country.
Apart from that, the ability to accelerate, if necessary beyond any speed limit, is just as important in avoiding accidents as is the ability to brake hard or for that matter to swerve. These abilities are what defines a great car from the also-rans. As for distraction recognition isn’t it important to be aware of the whole of your surroundings when driving, refocusing the eyes occasionally helps prevent drowsiness.
Look on the bright side, if you have a pre 2022 vehicle you’ll be able to outrun all those pesky unmarked and marked police cars, or will this be a one sided regulation? Don’t really need to ask that do I?
A friend of mine commented it means his old Nissan Micra will be able to outrun a new Ferrari when this comes in.
yes i do
ok
Big brother gone mad.Every one driving round like robots.I know the standard of driving is abismal,but to take away a driver’s ability to get out of trouble is dangerous.
If the government and road safety agitators were serious about driving standards, wouldn’t a compulsory retest every 5 or 10 years be the better option? It would preserve the new car market, make cars cheaper as they wouldn’t need all this tech (that can fail), and improve standards. I would probably say this would have a greater positive impact than speed limits.
There won’t be an Intelligent Speed Assistant in our cars until there is Artifical Intelligence in Computing. And that’s decades away. The Turing Test is a great starter, but it doesn’t allow for truly complex scenarios on a road that the human brain can (in theory) cope with. As another poster has written, the 737-MAX issue is a perfect illustration of an intelligent system having the direct opposite effect of its intention. Nix this idea for the next 15 years.
In theory speed limilers are not necessary if everybody was obeying the highway code.Dream on.
There have been at least a couple of times, over 40 years, where I have had to ‘Drive’ out if a dangerous situation by exceeding the speed limit temporarily to avoid an accident. Both times I recall involved drivers pulling out or merging whos lack of awareness made a dangerous situation. One was a bus driver who pulled out of a side road and if I had jammed on the brakes, the van I was driving would have smashed into the back of the bus with the goods inside probably coming through to the cab of the van. The other was a slip road into three lanes. Drivers seemed to be unaware and moved out into one and two leaving only three, for a moment, where I had the space to get through. Again this would have caused a huge accident if I had not had full control of the vehicle.
Speed limiters, I am in favour of to slow down the constant ‘speeders’ which involve so many drivers these days, but like the driving associations who show concern, total control by a computer could be more dangerous.
I remain to be convinced a speed limiter is the way to go. This is machine modification, not behaviour modification. As a long time motorcyclist, anything to reduce SMIDSY (sorry mate I didn’t see you) would be great, which at least one of these proposals might address.
If all vehicles on the roads were fitted with this technology it might work. However, as there are many vehicles in excess of 30 years old still in regular use it could be many years before this idea could be considered safe. Remember also, heavy good vehicles are supposed to be limited to 56 mph yet on numerous occasions I’ve struggled to pass them when I’ve been doing 70.
Why only activate the alcohol interlock after an offence has been committed. By being pro-active and activating it for all drivers it would prevent many offences.
What’s stopping the driver getting someone esle, who has not had a drink, to blow down to tube.
Firstly why should we follow EU policy Im British and leaving the dictatorship. Many we purchase cars pre limiters, or will the government then retro want fitted limiters to ever car. Will fire, police and ambulances also be fitted , probably not, all vehicles it states. What about military vehicles???? The list is extensive. My forefathers fought and died to stop dictatorship so the EU can sod off. What next how many breathes one can take per minute. I urge everyone to watch Demolition Man, not so much the main story but the back ground one the srate CONTROLS everything we are heading that way so be warned people be warned.
EU to introduce speed limiters – It is my understanding that parts of the Autobahn have no speed limits, how do the Germans feel about this?
OR, will this be another case of ‘do as I say, not as I do’? I drive a 16 seater minibus, fitted with a limiter set to 62mph. There have been occasions when I have been on the motorway & been overtaken by HGVs from Europe & I have felt as though my brakes suddenly came on by the way these behemoths seem to fly past so quickly before disappearing into the distance.
There have been occasions where I have come across drivers of cars and small vans who like to pootle along at 50 yet, when I pull out to overtake, they suddenly speed up, match my limited speed and hold me in lane 2 until I pull back – they, then, drop their speed back to 50. I’ve even had a few hold me out in lane 2 for ages before they put their foot down.
Whilst limiters might seem like a great idea, they are also bloody dangerous when the muppets are on the road.
The only way I would agree to a limiter fitted to my car would be if it was linked to a camera system (dashcams) and police took footage seriously.
I have a new focus with speed limit tec fitted the trouble with it is that when you go past a side street with a 20 mph sign it picks it up and drops you revs and speed its like putting your brakes on, its only a matter of time before someone hits you from behind i now keep it off
Mercedes Benz have been fitting manual speed limiters for years and they are a tremendous help in avoiding speeding fines. They can be instantly overridden, if required, by use of the accelerator pedal and do not engage automatically. This should remain the option, I think, but considering some of the ass***es I come across, I see no major problem with them being fully automatic !
How are the authorities going to police (ie actually catch) those who aquire patches to over-ride all the above installed software ? They won’t, so as usual criminals will not be caught & law abiding citizens will be caught with niggly offences, as outlined below.
I love the way the commissioner cites the “25,000 lives lost on our roads every year” when she knows full that most of this 25,000 won’t be saved by these new measures
they’re talking about lives lost on EU roads, not necessarily the same as UK, trying to apply a blanket “one size fits all” solution.
My current car is fitted with an intelligent speed limiter. As I drive south on the M5 from Cheltenham, the car suddenly slows from 70 to 30 as I cross over the road from Gloucester to Upton St Leonards. Somewhat dangerous as there is no indication to the car behind. I also have to override the system to return to the speed limit and reset the system. Not fit for purpose.
Why would the car manufacturers or any buyer agree? why buy a 155mph BMW (let alone a 200mph supercar) if it wont allow you to exceed 70mph? thus all luxury/performance/premium car sales (which is where a car makers profits are made) will collapse. (and secondhand car values will climb) I can imagine a police enforcement system that allows an officer to limit a particular cars speed or even stop a car with a remote override (to stop high speed chases) but not this.
No modern technology is 100% safe to use and will not be for a long time yet whatever any “expert” says someone tries to beat Evey new security system and always does. Beware all modern technology !
I have a Renault scenic which reads the speed signs already. One issue I have found is that I am driving in a 40mph area but the system reads a badly placed 30 sign on a side road. This means I would be slowed to 30 in and 40 mph area
I can see it now, pranksters placing home-made “10” signs on lamposts along roads.
if human error is the issue, why are we trusting an automated system written by a human.
My wife has a Toyota CHR with front driver assist, I had an Astra K with same. The Astra you could set the stage (close or far) that it braked the car, the CHR not so much. The radar often picks up perceived hazards that don’t actually exist, ie a car on a driveway, or one turning left but will clear before we pass, and brakes the car down when a human driver would not, risking following cars colliding seeing no reason for the braking.
I don’t think the technology is safe, either for the speed limitation (as said, there are times when a little extra speed would avoid a crash) or the autonomous driving. Imho, a well trained, experienced driver is still the safest way.
SPEED LIMITERS WILL CAUSE TAILBACKS SURELY….