A vote in Brussels this week could limit the speed you drive in future. Forever.

Interest groups are campaigning for mandatory speed limit technology in all passenger vehicles. This Thursday the European Parliament will vote in Brussels on legislation which will shape the future of mandatory in-vehicle safety technologies.

Amongst the technologies mooted for inclusion is intelligent speed assistance (ISA), which uses cameras to scan for and interpret speed limit signs. In addition to reading the road, ISA also integrates GPS data to configure its speed governing function. To enable its guardian ability, ISA uses engine power reduction to keep a vehicle at the required speed limit, instead of employing autonomous braking.

The ISA feature can be overridden by a driver, but the user interface configuration is designed to be sufficiently annoying to use, thereby forcing drivers to keep the system continuously functional.

Manufacturers of powerful premium vehicles, especially those already limited at 250 kph, are offering a compromise. The alternative is speed limit information (SLI), which has no intervention component but merely relays recommended legal speed information on a display – to act as a visual deterrent.

Campaigners for ISA have criticised SLI as being nothing more than a glorified speedometer feature, whilst automotive engineers have replied that ISA is an inaccurate camera technology prone to false positives. Although perhaps not a technical issue in Europe, there could be a huge issue in markets where older and newer technology vehicles share the same road network. If only a few feature ISA technology, it could potentially cause huge discrepancies in highway cruising speeds between lanes.

Speed limiting activists claim that if the European Parliament can be convinced to vote in a specific direction on the issue this week, with a mandatory fitment clause requiring all new cars sold in the EU by 2022 to include ISA technology, road deaths coulddecrease by 20%.

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