RAC road safety spokesperson Pete Williams said: “Improving road
safety is vital as too many lives are lost or ruined every year
as a result of accidents on our roads.
“As we progress on the journey to self-driving cars it is
important to take advantage of all the associated technological
developments to take safety to the next level, particularly as
road casualty statistics appear to have stopped falling in recent
years.
“Limiting speed may initially sound somewhat Big Brother-like,
but as it stands the intention is for the technology to be
overridable in certain situations – for example by pressing hard
on the accelerator to complete an over-taking manoeuvre. In
addition, vehicles will not brake automatically when going from a
faster to a slower speed limit, meaning it will still be down to
the driver to brake appropriately.
“But as the limiters can be overridden it naturally begs the
question whether some drivers will do this regularly to bypass
the system, potentially undermining some of the system’s
benefits.
“But just because a vehicle’s speed is limited doesn’t mean that
drivers can accelerate as fast as they like up to the limit they
are in. We should always drive at the right speed for the
conditions, whether that’s due to traffic, bad weather or other
hazards.
“While there is much talk in these proposals about speed
limiters, the greatest benefit may well be in technology that can
prevent distractions and improve drivers’ concentration as this
could massively improve road safety.”
