Built-in speed limiters for all new cars
Uk-built vehicles to follow EU directive, even after Brexit, to protect exports to Europe post-2022
EVERY new car built after May 2022 will be fitted with anti-speeding devices to alert drivers when they break legal limits, as well as in-built breathalysers to cut out engines when drink drivers get behind the wheel.
New vehicles will need to have an Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA) limiter as standard after the European Parliament agreed on new rules in Strasbourg yesterday.
The alert system will ensure drivers observe speed limits through GPS and road sign recognition cameras.
EU governments and MEPS yesterday agreed on 30 new safety standards for cars, vans and trucks. The bill is set to be rubber stamped in a forthcoming vote of the European Parliament.
“The Commission wanted to make it compulsory that the car would automatically slow down to observe speed limits but we have secured a compromise where the system merely has to alert the driver that he or she is speeding,” said Daniel Dalton, the Tory MEP for the West Midlands.
“It is true that cars built in Britain will have to carry these safety systems and standards if they are to be exported to the EU,” Mr Dalton said. “But we have also secured improved rules making sure that drivers of trucks pose less of a risk to cyclists and pedestrians.”
MEPS also backed rules to demand “an alcohol interlock installation facilitation”, and for cars to induce safety technologies that can detect when drivers are feeling drowsy. Another feature aims to prevent drivers being distracted by their smartphones.
The European Commission said the measures could prevent 140,000 serious road-traffic injuries by 2038. The bill will apply from May 2022 for new vehicles not yet in production and from May 2024 for cars already being sold.
Other features in the bill include a ban on seasonal clock changes across the EU as well as controversial copyright rules for the internet, branded a “ban on memes”.
MEPS voted in favour of controversial copyright laws that will force the likes of Google and Youtube to compensate the media for using their content. Artists such as Paul Mccartney and Annie Lennox have campaigned in favour of the reform.
A group of MEPS failed to block the most contentious articles, which called for a link tax on major websites that use other people’s content and enforced recognition tools to “prevent the availability” of copyrighted material online.
The Parliament said that memes – popular images and video – would be “specifically excluded” from the rules.
Were we actually leaving the EU on Friday as planned, our clocks would still have gone forward on Sunday along with those in the rest of Europe. This bi-annual adjustment has been harmonised for many years and the UK would doubtless have remained in step for the foreseeable future. The two dates for changing the clocks – the last Sundays in October and March – make sense.
But the EU Commission, backed by the European Parliament, has decreed that this should no longer be allowed. A new directive has been issued based on a consultation which allegedly elicited more than 4 million replies – 70 per cent from Germany. As a result, from 2021 there will be no twice-yearly alteration and every member state will have to stay on the same time throughout the year.
They will have to choose whether to stay permanently on winter time or summer time. For the UK this would mean either GMT, which would limit long evenings in the summer; or BST, which would lead to darker mornings in the winter. This is a function of latitude and longitude, not of regulatory diktat. Finland’s requirements will be different to those of Portugal.
Provided we are out of the EU by 2021 and no longer in a transition phase, this will not apply to the UK. But it would inevitably mean a different time zone with Ireland for at least half the year unless we adopt it too.
Why should the Commission impose this and the new copyright directive upon member states? It should follow a principle of subsidiarity, letting individual nations decide such matters for themselves. The fact they are not allowed to is one reason why people in the UK voted to leave.