Electronics Weekly
The technology uses GPS signals to detect speed limits, detect speeding cars and slow them down.
All in all the EC has mandated 15 safety features to be be installed in 2022 cars, including drowsiness detection, lane discipline assist, accident black boxes, automatic braking if a pedestrian steps in front of a car or if the car in front brakes suddenly, bigger windscreen and side windows on HGVs and buses to detect cyclists, and an alcohol lock if the driver’s been drinking.
The changes will be applied to all new models of cars by 2022.
New versions of existing cars will be fitted with the technology from 2024.
The measures will apply to the UK after Brexit as we have agreed to align our motoring regulations with the EU’s regulations.
Do you drive through a lot of hedges, Mike?
Haven’t hit one since 1984 on the Kingdom Stages rally. But the electronics in my new car seemed to think I was trying to celebrate its 35th anniversary. I thought they were supposed to only respond to cars in the way but seems not. I hate to think what it would do if I was closing in fast on a car I intended to overtake. It automatically braking just as I pulled out could be lethal.
To control cars speed is something that could have been done over 30 years ago. Most cars can also be retro fitted with a simple speed cruise device. You just need a transmitter built into the road to send a signal when you go into a designated speed area; this goes to the vehicles device which could be the fuel injection system, as most cars have this going back to the early eighties. It would take very little modification to achieve this. Automatic braking systems that sense something in front and immediately stop the car could actually be more dangerous in certain circumstances. In all of the augmented systems on cars, we must be able to override in certain conditions!
I’m afraid even modern cars struggle. The latest addition to my fleet reads traffic signs but constantly gets it wrong, beeping me (before I turned it off) for doing legal speeds. It also doesn’t understand that when it sees a hedge straight ahead the last thing you do is brake – I’m obviously going to throw the whole thing sideways in about a second’s time and power out but you can’t do that with the front brakes on !
But what most annoyed me is it kept telling me I was taking the wrong lines into corners on country roads because it misinterprets the white lines.
So in the end whilst some of it would have been useful, I’ve had to disable the whole system.
Splendid zeitghost, we will all doff our caps as you whisk by
I shall sail blythely by in my 1962 Rover 110, disregarding all the speed limits, totally proof against EMP because of the valves (tubes) in the wireless set in the dash.
And what is already a classic will become an even more valuable classic. No way of retrofitting anything to carb based machines either.
An excellent point SEPAM. If there are exceptions, people will use them to evade the speed limits; if there are not exceptions, emergencies could become disasters.
Having been in emergencies where we had to break the speed limits, twice, and having been in another case where it would have been better if I drove rather than waiting for the ambulance, I wonder if they have planned any ways to override this. A quick straw poll showed about half my friends had been in similar circumstances.