Driving injuries could go down by a twenty-five percent and
the air could be cleaner for it, if two transportation advisory bodies have their way
with the implementation of speed limiters in the UK.
Intelligent Speed Adaptation (ISA) utilizes satellite position
and in-vehicle instruments to monitor a car’s speed and keep it in tune with
the accompanying speed limit of the area. A feat accomplished either through
autonomous braking or an in-car warning system that could then be overridden by
the driver.
A requisite for such technology would be digital speed maps
that consist of speed limits for any given road. Thus, the Commission for
Integrated Transport and the Motorists’ Forum, who is pushing for the
implementation of speed limiters, is urging both automakers and governments to
get onboard with the project.
The purported benefits of such technology is stated to be
increased safety, fuel consumption, and a reduction of pollution. The
recommendation follows trials backed by the Department of Transportation in the
UK.
The groups state that with overridable ISA system, road
injuries could be reduced by as much as 12%. With mandatory ISA, that number
would be more than doubled, with a 30% reduction of driving related injuries.
“ISA can have a large impact on future accident numbers,
particularly on the more severe crashes,” the groups said.
In terms of reducing the environmental impact of carbon
dioxide emissions, the report notes “not very significant” reduction outside of
the expressway, which would itself mark a 5.8% reduction when mandatory ISA is
in place.
The project on the whole faces a number of immediate
hurdles, perhaps most cumbersome of which comes in the form of consumer demand.
One would expect that without widespread adoption of such technology, those automakers
on-board early would suffer a consumer-backlash at the notion of an essentially
handicapped automobile. Others are concerned with driver-complacency behind the
wheel, which the automakers themselves are concerned with legal ramifications.
Public opinion in the UK on the issue of ISA is said to be equally
divided between those that are “extremely hostile” to the concept, and those
that would be open to the reform and those that would need some sort of incentive
(such as insurance rebates) in order to get behind the project.
However, in a country that consistently produces cases of
drivers blissfully following their GPS devices into no-man’s land, would it be
wise to put technology that in all likelihood will have a hiccup or two, in
control of the speed of your vehicle?
