Back in 2019, the European Commission announced a plan that made gearhead minds explode. Starting in 2022, all new cars would come with devices that try to curb speeding.
News about the scary-sounding idea went quiet for a while, but as Carscoops reports, UK AutoTrader’s Rory Reid is here to remind us that residents of Europe and perhaps even the United Kingdom will deal with this tech in every new car starting next year:
The system is called Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA) and the idea behind it is that through a GPS and street sign recognition, a car can try to limit a driver’s speed to the speed limit. The European Transport Safety Council notes that when a driver tries to exceed the speed limit, the vehicle can use various methods to slow them down. These range from vibration warnings to audible warnings. ISA can also reduce engine power past the speed limit or even make the accelerator pedal harder to push.
Such systems have been in use for a while and at least for now, drivers can override them by pushing the accelerator pedal down further or by disabling the system entirely. Ford Europe advertises its version of ISA as a way to avoid getting speeding tickets.
Enthusiasts are worried and, as the BBC reports, automakers and regulators can’t seem to come to an agreement for the least intrusive way to implement the tech.
The ETSC cites a Norwegian Study that found that ISA devices can dramatically cut down on collisions and deaths. ETSC expects the widespread usage of ISA to cut down on traffic collisions by 30 percent and fatalities by 20 percent. Those are some huge improvements in road safety. ETSC also notes that a wide variety of vehicles already come equipped with the technology.
Time will tell if ISA makes roads as safe as ETSC hopes.