ANP
NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 19:07
Julius Moorman
economics editor
Julius Moorman
economics editor
Anyone who recently bought a new car may have noticed it: beeps that go off when the permitted speed is exceeded. It’s called Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA) and is a European obligation.
This is already in models that came onto the market after 2022. From next Sunday, July 7, it will apply to all newly sold cars.
Drivers are warned that they are speeding, this should improve road safety. The Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management says that 30 percent of fatal accidents are caused by speeding. In addition, the Event Data Recorder (EDR) mandatory. This is a black box for cars that stores data to determine the cause of an accident.
Different tastes
According to European regulations, car manufacturers can choose from several methods. In addition to beeps, vibrations in the steering wheel, resistance on the accelerator pedal, or automatic speed limiting are also permitted.
The car is not completely taken over: the resistance on the accelerator pedal or speed limiter can be overwritten, for example during a dangerous traffic situation. Motorists can switch off ISA, but this must be done every time.
Roy Kleijwegt, journalist at Autoweek, has already driven dozens of cars equipped with ISA. He says that most car manufacturers opt for the beep when driving too fast. “It is very good that measures are being taken to improve road safety, but this is quite an intrusive solution.”
Car manufacturers are required to maintain a margin of up to three percent above the permitted speed. “If you overtake someone now, all the alarm bells go off. A larger margin would have been nicer.”
Traffic psychologist Gerard Tertoolen says that the legislator is forced to apply a strict margin: “If you build in a margin of ten kilometers above the speed limit, you imply that that speed is acceptable.”
Abundance of beeps
The Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management says that a lot of attention has been paid at European level to accurately register the maximum permitted speeds. Technologies such as vehicle cameras and software for recognizing traffic signs have been developed for this purpose, and digital speed maps have also been created for navigation systems.
However, these systems are not yet waterproof, says Kleijwegt of Autoweek. “That information is correct nine times out of ten, but if the system is wrong, you will also have to deal with beeps while you keep to the speed.”
According to Kleijwegt, too many notifications in new cars have a counterproductive effect. “Whether the car thinks you are not paying attention, you are too close to a vehicle in front of you, or you are driving too fast. You start taking all those signals less seriously, which seems dangerous to me.”
Traffic psychologist Tertoolen agrees that an abundance of signals can have that effect, but warns that it can also be the other way around: “If the maximum permitted speed is not registered properly, people may continue to drive too fast if they do not hear a beep.”
Choice for occasions
Tertoolen is in favor of measures to improve road safety, but would have preferred to see a lighter version of ISA. “Even if you are not a notorious speeder, this is just a very intrusive system. A dashboard light would have been a more charming solution.”
He expects that many people who were planning to buy a new car will now opt for a second-hand model without beeps.
According to the RAI Association, which represents the interests of car manufacturers and importers, this is going well. They refer to a SWOV survey among a thousand motorists. More than 80 percent of respondents would be willing to use a system like ISA.
Black box
On July 7, the black box for cars will also become mandatory. This box records, among other things, speed, ABS activity, and steering angle. This happens continuously, but only the data shortly before, during and immediately after a collision is stored.
The data that the box registers falls under European privacy rules and must be anonymized. Only certain parties can gain access for legal proceedings or road safety research.
According to the EU, this data could, for example, play an important role in police investigations into the cause of an accident and for insurance matters.
2024-06-27 17:07:17
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