To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of rules on speed guidance systems in cars; and if she will take steps to introduce new requirements to ensure in-vehicle systems (a) follow road rules and (b) can be overridden by drivers when they do not.
Answered on
25 October 2022
There are currently no mandatory requirements for speed guidance systems fitted to cars in Great Britain. Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA) is such a system and was mandated for new vehicles by the European Union (EU) from this year under an agreed a package of measures known as the General Safety Regulation (GSR) but does not apply to the UK following our EU Exit.
The UK’s departure from the EU provides the platform to capitalise on regulatory freedoms and make decisions that are right for road safety in Great Britain. An assessment is being undertaken on vehicle technologies introduced by GSR and a decision will be taken in due course as to whether to mandate any of those in Great Britain.
Irrespective of the technology deployed on a vehicle and how it performs, the driver is required by law to be in control of their vehicle at all times. Therefore, as a principle, any Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS), like ISA, can be overridden or switched off by the driver at any time.