EU plans to install speed limiters in all cars have been revealed, ahead of formal proposals which will be published later this year.
The speed limiter technology, which proposals would see installed every car, works by reading road speed limit signs and automatically slowing the vehicle down if it’s travelling too fast. It already exists in many new cars, which have cameras mounted by their rear-view mirrors. These scan for speed limit signs and display the limit on the dashboard.
For roads which do not carry signs, speed limit information from the satellite navigation system would be used. Under the new EU plans the technology would brake the car and prevent it from going above the respective limit – effectively this would make it impossible to go faster than 70mph.
The EU would also demand that older cars were fitted with the new technology, in an attempt to ensure no car on the road could travel faster than the speed limit. It seems to be another step in the direction of a ‘Big Brother’ effect for motorists – soon we might not even be controlling the cars at all, with plans for self-driving vehicles to enter production in the not-so-distant future.
The technology is already used in trucks and HGVs.
A spokesman for the European Commission said: “There is a currently consultation focusing on speed-limiting technology already fitted to HGVs and buses.
“Taking account of the results, the Commission will publish in the autumn a document by its technical experts which will no doubt refer to ISA among many other things.”
Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin is said to be furious with the plans, seeing as the UK has a significantly better road safety record than many European countries, and has instructed officials to block the move.
1,754 people died in road accidents in the UK last year, compared with 3,657 in Germany. The UK figure is the lowest since records began in 1926.
30,000 people die every year on EU roads – the EC believes 6,000 could be saved with the implementation of the new technology.
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