Road test for self-braking car that obeys speed limit
Times of London 04/07/03
author: Ben Webster

A device that detects the speed limit and automatically applies the brakes to your car to prevent speeding will begin trials this month in Leeds.
Preliminary tests show that the system, known as Intelligent Speed Adaptation (ISA), could save the lives of more than a thousand people killed by speeding drivers each year.
The Government has allocated ¡2 million for four consecutive six-month trials on adapted Skoda Fabias and is considering ordering manufacturers to fit the device on all new cars within a decade.
Unlike the crude speed limiters fitted to lorries and coaches, the new device matches the driver's speed to the limit that applies on each road.
Each of the Skodas has a computer under the floor that carries a digital road map showing the limits on all roads in Leeds as well as on motorways and trunk roads in the rest of Britain. The computer uses a satellite positioning system to detect the car's location. A digital display informs the driver of the speed limit.
If a driver is approaching a village with a 30mph limit, the system will send a message saying that the limit is changing.
It will also detect whether the driver is responding and, if not, the device will begin to apply the brakes 300 yards before the 30mph sign. The accelerator pedal will not respond to normal pressure once the car has reached the speed limit.Drivers will be able to override the system in an emergency. It can be disengaged either by pressing a red button on the steering wheel or by pressing down very hard on the accelerator.
Oliver Carsten, the project leader and Professor of Transport Studies at Leeds University, said: We want to assess whether the system changes people's driving habits. Once the system is switched off, they might feel so liberated that they drive like a bat out of hell. Alternatively, they might be more aware of speed limits and be better drivers.
Professor Carsten said initial tests had shown a positive reaction from motorists, who felt safer with the system and had fewer near misses with cyclists and pedestrians.
People speed because they can and because others do. As with drink-driving many years ago, people think it is OK because it is the norm.
About 65 per cent of drivers break the speed limit in urban areas, according to the Transport Department, and more than half on motorways.
The Government hopes that the results of the trials will show such a substantial benefit that manufacturers will agree to install the device voluntarily. Ministers will reserve the right to impose the system on the industry. The Commons Transport Select Committee has called for all new vehicles to have the device from 2013.
Richard Brunstrom, the Chief Constable of North Wales, supports the introduction of speed-limiting devices.
We are concerned that there continue to be on sale in Europe vehicles designed to be capable of travelling at more than twice the legal limit.

 

Another reason not to live in Britain.

There's no way in hell that thing would be tolerated in a place like southern California, let alone Arizona & Nevada.

 

This is when it makes no sense acquiring cars with bigger engines. Your best bet will be a 17- or 18-second Jetta TDI that gets 50 mpg. Screw the performance - it will be dead anyway.

I realize that even now there isn't much sense driving Ferrari on the streets, other than to get attention. How often will you push it to 200 mph? But having the relative freedom to do so surely adds to the joy of owning a sporty car. Which will be killed if such device is deemed mandatory on every car.

Perhaps all those software engineers who were layed off during 2001/2002 silicone valley market crash will have jobs after all! Fool the darn computer about speed limits. Or simply buy HPP+ to program this thing out. Of course, such devices may be illegal, just like radar detectors are in Canada. If cops find out, your device is taken away and you get a hefty fine.

I most certainly think such system will have a difficult acceptance in North America, but you never know how events will turn out in 20 years. Maybe we will have to custom "tweak" the car to our liking after we buy it.

 

This idea of Intelligent Speed Adaptation (ISA) is just another example of how the British Government would like to do anything other than expand, or even maintain, their current overcrowded highway system. I remember seeing somewhere that the average UK highway hadn't been repaved in the last 15 years. As a consequence of shortsighted cost savings, the average London motorist faces endless traffic jams and the roughest roads in western Europe.

Sure, using this technology you could cram more cars into the traffic jams that already assist. It also would be a way of solving some massive autotheft problems in the UK, with mandatory speedlimiters removing the threat of highspeed chases with "joyriders." However, this development just underlines the nannying mentality that has crept into the United Kingdom.

Most Americans don't know that the British employ more "ghetto bird" helicopters than the L.A.P.D. You also probably haven't heard about how the "Dukes of Hazard" theory of speed enforcement has become prevelent in British law enforcement. This is the worst country in Europe when it comes to driving, period.

Maybe the United States is a far better place to live, and drive, than most of us appreciate.

 

OOOhhhhhh my goodness, don't get me started....

I absolutely abhor evrything that takes away from my individuality. I also deplore the fact that Big Brother watches virtually EVERYTHING WE DO now. I am not a rampant criminal in need of "flexible house arrest". This is another system that retracts from my ability to think and do for myself. Why not just ride the subway or a bus if you aren't gonna be "the driver" anymore?

As beneficial as OnStar can be in certain situations, I still don't want to be watched in my every move. I carry a cell phone, so if I'm in a wreck I'll call for help if I need it - unless I'm dead, in which case help won't matter to me much anyways.
Locking your keys in the car or your toddler/infant in the car (STUPID in the first place, but accidents do happen) - ummm touchpad keyless entry anyone? Spare key in the wallet? (I have BOTH).
Vehicle is stolen - Hello LoJack. Hello Police. Hello Nationwide.

Y'all heard about the lady who rented a car for about 2 weeks in Texas and was charged a $250 fine when she turned it back in... On a whimsical weekend off work, she apparently wandered slightly into Oklahoma while sightseeing on some back country roads. Her contract explicitly said (in fine print) that she could not go out of the state in which she rented the car. How did they know she went into Oklahoma? On Star satellite tracking. I admit she breached the contract, but dayum guys. What harm was done?

I have also heard of rental agencies checking the on-board "black boxes" to determine the maximum speed you had the car to, your braking habits, etc. to determine rental risk and damage requests. Carmakers now base warranty work on your cars data recorder - looking for warranty-nullifying mods, treatment, or misuse. And I'M paying THEM for their shoptime spent trying to make a case against my warranty claim before they will do the work!

I just get so worked up about having my every move monitored, or worse yet controlled by someone else. This turns into a never ending cycle of obsessive compulsive control...
Some guy in a control room watches me in my car going down the highway. Some guy in another control room watches the guys in the first control room that are watching me. Then another security guy watches the guy in the control room watching the guys in the first control room watching me... and so on. Eventually, I am the only guy actually working for a living, making some actual part to do a job with, and 100 other people drawing big salaries are watching me do it...

Sorry - I tried to abbreviate this rant.
Enough is enough - let's start working on making things to improve the world's QUALITY of life instead of making things to CONTROL how people live.

 

This is why I'm starting to buy mainly older cars. While other people are getting tickets downloaded directly into their OBDIII (and their engines deactivated because they haven't paid), I'll be cruising by in my '66 big-block Corvette.

 

I HEAR YA MAN!!! I'll be right there with you in a '71 Mach 1!

You and me can start our own "Antiques Roadshow" centered around our old cars! People will be awestruck when we stomp on the gas with the wheel cut to the left and do about 3 or 4 donuts with tires smokin'... because their new cars with mandatory traction control, computer controlled throttle and torque application, automatic independent wheel braking system, and satellite communicating control system won't allow them to "smell the rubber burning".

But boy won't they be safe on the roads...

Which brings up another point ---> Tickets generate tons of income for speed-trap towns along major routes. So if cars basically can't speed (or tailgate, or swerve, or make illegal movements, etc) because their nav-system won't let them, how will Officer DoLittle earn a living?

 

I've known this for quite a while. I actually think this is a positive outcome of technology. Don't you remember the days when people would put a "performance chip" in an engine and then blow it. The factory chip went back in, and the manufacturer got stuck with the warranty bill. If technology can beat fraud, I'm for it. Maybe this is part of the reason why we are seeing ever longer powertrain warrantys these day.

You might be surprised to know that every recent C5 Corvette and LS-1 F-body records vehicle speed for the 5-seconds before an airbag deployment. I don't know if its ever been used in court, but if you were driving a 'Vette at 125mph before a major accident, you can be caught by the electronic watchdog.

In addition, "Big Brother" speed enforcement isn't new. Back in the 1960s, when the New York State Thruway was new, the State Police used the times stamped on toll tickets to bust speeders. There were no interceptors or speed traps. It's amazing how simple arithmatic caught so many drivers making 100mph+ average speeds.

 

People must've caught onto that real quick though right? Kinda takes the point out of habitual speeding.

"Well officer - ya see, these aliens beamed me and my car aboard their ship and when I regained conciousness half an hour later, I found myself in Pensylvania"

Regardless, the UK thing is OTT - thank god I emigrated, the UK is going to the dogs.