The European Union is planning to make speed limiters compulsory on all new cars from 2022 and the UK is set to follow suit even after Brexit. But is the technology reliable enough yet?
It is certainly disconcerting at first: you’re happily driving along a country road at 60mph (97km/h) when a speed limit sign on the dashboard starts blinking irritably and your car begins to slow down, all by itself. This is what it feels like to use an intelligent speed assistance system (ISA). Or at least, it’s what it feels like if you fail to spot a speed restriction sign and are about to go sailing through a small village at close to double the 30mph limit. The car will also make sure that as you pass through the village your speed stays down. It does this not by automatically applying the brakes – that’s emergency assistive braking – but by limiting the engine power. If your speed does creep up for any reason an insistent electronic chime will alert you.
New technology will make it easier to stick to speed limits Systems like this are already available on a number of new cars, although they will only work if you take the trouble to switch them on. But they will soon become a lot more common because the European Union is planning to make them compulsory on all new cars from 2022. The European Transport Safety Council has long advocated their use, citing studies suggesting they are the most effective life-saving driver assistance systems. The Department for Transport has said the same rules will apply in the UK, even once we have left the EU. In fact, the EU has set out a much wider range of compulsory safety measures that will have to be fitted to all cars from that date, including emergency automatic braking, lane-keeping assistance, and systems to prevent drivers from becoming drowsy or distracted.
Misconceptions
But none has so far proved nearly as divisive as ISA or has generated as many headlines. That’s because ISA limits speed and the very idea of compulsory speed limiters is something many drivers object to. Supporters of the plan claim there are misconceptions around what ISA is and what it actually does.
“Most people want to stick to the speed limit but they need help in understanding what the speed limit is for any particular road. These systems will help them do that,” says Matthew Avery of Thatcham Research, an organization that carries out testing on behalf of the insurance industry. In other words, it’s meant to be a driver’s aid rather than an excuse to put Big Brother behind the wheel. Nevertheless, according to the European Transport Safety Council, mass adoption could have major safety benefits, potentially cutting collisions by 30% and deaths on the road by 20%.
How it works
To regulate speed the car needs to know what the limit is in a given area, Currently, this can be done in two ways: Firstly, it is possible to use GPS satellite navigation technology to work out exactly where the car is and where it is heading, and compare that to a mapping database on which the different speed limits are recorded. The advantage of a system like this is that not only does it know what the limit is on the stretch of road you’re actually using, it can warn you of upcoming limits as well.
To regulate speed the car needs to know what the limit is in a given area, Currently, this can be done in two ways: Firstly, it is possible to use GPS satellite navigation technology to work out exactly where the car is and where it is heading, and compare that to a mapping database on which the different speed limits are recorded. The advantage of a system like this is that not only does it know what the limit is on the stretch of road you’re actually using, it can warn you of upcoming limits as well.
“If you already have GPS navigation, if you already have a camera on the car, then all you need is software. Quite complicated but still just software,” he says. Prof Oliver Carsten of Leeds University’s Institute for Transport Studies agrees. An expert on transport safety, he was involved in a major six-year study into ISA that was funded by the UK government.” Initially we estimated the probable costs at about £2,000 per vehicle,” he says. “But now the extra costs are negligible because if you already have things like lane departure warnings fitted you already have a camera on your car.”
Imperfect solution?
But while the technology may be affordable right now it is far from perfect. One of the cars we drove, for example, became confused when it passed two signs giving different speed limits and failed to respond to either. “If you have conflicting information, for example, your GPS map tells you one thing and your camera tells you another, which do you go with? It’s not always possible to be wholly accurate,” says Ford’s Roland Schaefer. One possible solution is “vehicle-to-infrastructure communication”, he thinks, where speed limit signs, traffic lights, and other street furniture would be able to transmit signals directly to the car via a 5G connection, for example.
