A recent survey by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has found that more than 60% of drivers in the United States would find it acceptable for their vehicles to provide audible and visual warnings when they exceed the posted speed limit. The survey, which included 1,802 drivers, sought to understand their attitudes toward intelligent speed assistance systems (ISA).
Ian Reagan, a senior research scientist at IIHS, highlighted the potential of current technologies to virtually eliminate speeding and speeding tickets. However, he noted that the trend appears to be moving in the opposite direction, with adaptive cruise control and partial automation systems allowing drivers to set their speed as high as 90 mph.
Over-speeding is consistently a factor in more than a quarter of U.S. traffic fatalities, resulting in over 12,000 deaths in 2022. Despite this, about half of the drivers admitted to driving at least 15 mph over the limit in the past month, according to the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.
Starting next month, the European Union will require all new vehicles to be equipped with ISA systems. These in-vehicle technologies use speed sign-recognition video cameras and/or GPS-linked speed limit data to inform drivers of the current speed limit and warn them if they are exceeding it.
The IIHS survey revealed that more than 80% of drivers would want a feature displaying the current speed limit, and over 70% agreed that they would appreciate an unobtrusive tone sounding when the speed limit changes. About half of the respondents said they would not object to a vehicle technology that makes the accelerator pedal harder to press or automatically restricts speed.
As the discussion surrounding the implementation of anti-speeding technology in vehicles progresses, the IIHS survey offers valuable insights into the opinions of U.S. drivers on this crucial issue.
