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All new vehicles sold in Europe will be fitted with a mandatory speed limiter from July 2024 to keep cars within the UK speed limits and boost road safety.
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The European Commission introduced legislation that made it a requirement for all new cars must be fitted with an Intelligent Speed Assist (ISA) by July 7th 2024. Despite leaving the EU, new cars in the UK are likely to be affected. Manufacturers who build cars in Europe are not removing ISA specifically for UK-bound cars. It could also mean that existing but unregistered cars will have to be retrofitted with a speed limiter before they can be sold. The UK’s DfT said said it was constantly looking at ways where the latest technology can benefit different modes of transport. ISA works by using GPS and traffic sign data to calculate a driver's speed before implementing safety measures within the vehicle. A spokesperson for the DfT said: "We are constantly carrying out research into how transport users across all modes can benefit from the latest technology, ensuring journeys are safe, reliable, and cut emissions. The Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA) laws coming into effect in July apply to the EU and Northern Ireland only, not Great Britain." |
There are three types of ISA: informative/advisory, supportive/warning and intervening/mandatory. The ISA uses GPS and traffic sign data to know when to kick in.
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Types of ISA |
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Informative/advisory |
Supportive/warning |
Intervening/mandatory |
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Flashes a warning sign on the dashboard or makes an audible gong |
Increases the upward pressure on the accelerator (this can be overridden by holding down the pedal) |
Limits the fuel injection inside the vehicle to stop a driver from speeding |
Many manufacturers have already started including factory-fitted ISA in some of their cars such as Citroen, Ford, Honda, Jaguar, Peugeot, Renault and Volvo. Renault Group also went a step further by limiting the top speed of all new Renault and Citroen cars to 112 mph to increase safety.
It is hoped the use of speed limiters will help to reduce road accidents. The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) – which has been pushing for the mandatory speed limiters – has said the move will reduce collisions by 30%. The European Commission has said the speed limiters (along with other measures included in the legislation) could prevent 140,000 serious road traffic injuries by 2038. Overall, it hopes to cut road deaths to zero by 2050.
There are concerns as to whether the current speed restrictor technology is sophisticated and advanced enough to work effectively. Forward-facing cameras with traffic-sign recognition technology are sometimes caught out, especially on motorways, or miss speed changes. Roadside vegetation can obscure road signs and lack of infrastructure such as speed limits not being signposted may fail the ISA from recognising the speed signals.
Some people have also questioned the reliability and accuracy of the ISA – drivers have instanced where their car’s sat-nav system glitched and incorrectly assumed that the driver has taken the exit off the motorway while the driver was still on it. In such a case, if the car signals you to reduce speed from 70 to 30 mph wouldn’t be helpful.
Other reported cases include, the speed limiter reading a slip road or other nearby roads’ speed limit and applying it to the road the driver was on.
ISA systems have been in development for several decades. The concept originated in France back in 1982. Since then, the technology has improved and has already been adopted in a lot of car models. For example, Ford introduced an ISA system as an option on the Ford Galaxy and S-Max in 2015, and the current Ford Focus comes with it as standard.
Making them mandatory would be a major step forward in developing self-driving cars in the UK.
