(Reuters) – More than 60 percent of U.S. drivers say they would be OK with their car giving them an audible and visual warning if they were going over the speed limit, a survey by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found on Wednesday.
IIHS surveyed a total of 1,802 drivers to understand how they feel about Intelligent Speed ​​Assistance Systems (ISA).
Why is this important?
Speeding is always responsible for more than a quarter of all traffic fatalities in the U.S., and the report says that in 2022, speeding will cause more than 12,000 deaths.
But about half of drivers admitted to driving at least 15 miles per hour over the speed limit in the past month, according to the report, which cited the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.
context
Starting next month, the European Union will require all new cars to be equipped with ISA systems.
According to the European Transport Safety Board, ISA is an in-car technology that uses speed sign recognition video cameras and GPS-linked speed limit data to inform drivers of their current speed limit and warn them if they are exceeding it.
Important Quotes
“With the technology we have today, we could prevent virtually all speeding and eliminate speeding tickets,” said Ian Reagan, senior research scientist at IIHS. “Yet we seem to be moving in the opposite direction, with adaptive cruise control and partially automated systems that can lock the speed at 90 mph if the driver so desires.”
By the numbers
Of all drivers surveyed, over 80% said they would like the ability to display the current speed limit.
Additionally, more than 70% of all drivers said they would like to hear a discreet warning when the speed limit changes.
About half said they would be OK with car technology making it harder to press the accelerator or automatically limiting speed.
(Reporting by Abhinav Parmar in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)
