With automotive technology advancing at a rapid rate, one of the more controversial features being proposed by legislators and automakers is anti-speeding tech, which is now mandatory in all new vehicles sold in the European Union. The goal of anti-speeding tech is quite obvious – to improve safety on the road and decrease the number of automotive-related injuries and deaths, though as one might imagine, not everyone is onboard with it. However, a recent survey found that a surprising number of folks may be.
That survey comes from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), as 64 percent of its 1,802 respondents said they’d be fine if their vehicle gave them an audible and visual warning when they exceed the posted speed limit. At the same time, 80 percent either agreed or strongly agreed that they would like to have a feature in their vehicles that displays the current speed limit, while 70 percent would like to have an unobtrusive tone to sound when the speed limit changes.
Roughly 60 percent said that it would be acceptable if these systems – known as intelligent speed assistance (ISA) – turned on automatically before every trip, 65 percent want that feature in their next new vehicle (if most others have it), and 70 percent want ISA in their next vehicle if it results in lower insurance premiums. However, most noted that they’d prefer that ISA only intervene if they’re traveling at 10 miles-per-hour or more over the posted speed limit – not one or two mph.
These are somewhat surprising results, given how certain vehicles with ISA features have been the topic of heated debates and much controversy as of late. Regardless, the IIHS and other agencies – including the the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) – have long called for such anti-speeding tech to be required in new vehicles, and it’s also something that Ford has explored controlling autonomously in recent years, too.
We’ll have more on anti-speeding tech soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for non-stop Ford news coverage.
Comments
The Mustang must have a valet mode feature, which the Chevy Corvette has. The owner sets up a security code that activates the valet mode which limits the maximum speed down to 25 MPH (40 KPH) so anyone else driving the Mustang cannot run over that speed. This will prevent “free rides” where parking valets take out a sports cars without the owner’s permission and run it at high speeds.
Just another step of government intrusion into our lives = less freedom to chose.
It must be where I live, but speeding isn’t a problem. Someone driving 13 mph UNDER the speed and holding up dozens of frustrated drivers behind them is MUCH more common here.
Just the fact that the survey respondents report what warnings they’d like to have, tells me that their “eyes up” time looking through the windshield is much, much less than it used to be. The speed limit signs are still there, granted they may be outdated and in need of updating, but they are still there. If you’re paying attention like you should be, you see these signs. Am I missing something here?
The Germans have a wonderful word that sums up this article succinctly: Quatsch!
Nuff said.
I have several responses. First, many years ago, the city of Philadelphia experimented with speed limit signs on some city streets. First, they raised the limit signs to see what happened. The vehicles traversing the area moved at the same speed as before the change. Second, they lowered the limit way down. The vehicles traversing the area moved at the same speed as before the change. The point is that the traffic will move at a speed that is appropriate for the conditions and environment (generally speaking – there’s always the nut jobs that drive 35 on the freeway and 65 in town).
My second comment is wondering how, when everyone can let the computer drive the car, we are going to get anywhere if the computer forces everyone to follow the posted limits. I can guarantee if everyone travels exactly 65 MPH on the New Jersey Turnpike, for example, there will be 110 miles of gridlock from New York City to the Delaware border. Many speed limits are arbitrary and inappropriate. They were set when cars had drum brakes and took a day and a half to stop. Now a 25 MPH limit on a through street is ridiculous.
Driving fast is not synonymous with driving unsafely. Driving too slow IS a safety hazard. Driving recklessly at any speed, not paying attention, texting, or whatever, causes accidents.
Just to prove the point – when the national speed limit was 55 there were no significant changes in auto accident rates. When it was raised to 65 again, as I recall, the accident rate went down. So let’s tell these bureaucratic fools that know nothing, to butt out. We will drive at a speed appropriate for the conditions and area; and those inattentive or incompetent or reckless drivers should be banned to improve safety.
Great comments!
With all this technology one would think there was a way to deal with cell phone texting (and even talking). Of course there is, but the phone company lobby is too powerful. So much for actually caring about safety.
How true, sadly.
These people are going to be so excited they will wet their pants. The Administration wrote a bill in 2021 that was passed by Congress. In it, effective 2029 at the latest, every new vehicle would be required to automatically stop when it reached 90 miles per hour, or when it got too close to the vehicle in front of it, or 45 miles per hour when a pedestrian is detected. That’s right, come to a dead stop without warning. What could possibly go wrong?
If that’s the case, then small towns and villages should dissolve their police departments, that exist mostly to fill the coffers with ticket revenue.
I don’t believe this survey at all. Second, this is one more step in the direction of having “your” vehicle send you a speeding ticket automatically. It’s another government power/money grab.
What’s a power grab, Vladimir?
This was a survey.
Calm down, breathe in and out, and just……relax.
You’ll be okay.
If this is in our future, I’d rather see it limit speed based on percentages over the posted limit, not a hard number like 10 mph over. In a residential area where the speed limit is something like 35 mph, limiting cars to 45 mph is way too fast in an area where you have pedestrians, kids and critters. If the system limited speed to 15% over the posted limit, that would mean 41 mph in a 35 zone and 81 in a 70 zone on the interstate. That would make a lot more sense.
IIHS doing a survey on speed limiters is about as credible as Planned Parenthood doing a survey on abortion sentiment. They want it to go a certain way. Maybe what we need instead is a technology that calls the police when someone driving a hugenourmous $100k F150 strays out of their lane and almost kills someone from inattentive driving instead.
You’re alleging that Don The Con ‘thinks’.
He doesn’t think. He figures.
Figures never lie, and liars always figure.