Speed Limiters: drivers warned 'mandatory' new rule will change 'the way we drive'

• New cars will be required to have mandatory speed limiters.
• Intelligent Speed Assistance will prevent cars from exceeding the speed limit.
• The devices will be mandatory from 7 July - less than a week from now.

A major change is coming to new cars hitting the roads across the UK this month. All new vehicles rolling off the lot will be required to have mandatory speed limiters as standard. 

It is part of a swathe of new safety features being introduced across the European car market. And despite Brexit happening years ago, drivers in the UK will also be affected by the measures. 

If you are planning on buying a new car this year - or in the mid-to-long term future, a used vehicle - you might want to make sure you know what to expect. Here’s all you need to know: 

What is a speed limiter? 

This is not a case of a vague or miss-leading name, the speed limiters do exactly what it says on the tin - it limits the speed of your car. It is a safety device fitted to your car which prevents it from crossing the speed limit on the road. 

Speed limit sign. Photo: Ben Birchall/PA Wire | Ben Birchall/PA Wire

The EU commission approved plans to make these limiters mandatory in 2019 for all member states - and although the UK has left the European Union it will still utilise the technology. In a move likely to make it more convenient for car manufacturers shipping vehicles to the UK and European market. 

Speed Limiters are already mandatory for some vehicles in the UK including buses, minibuses, limousines and goods vehicles with a maximum laden weight of more than 3.5 tonnes. 

How do speed limiters work? 

It all sounds a bit sci-fi doesn’t it, like a piece of mumbo-jumbo you’d hear in a film like Minority Report or RoboCop, but it is actually a rather nifty bit of tech. The speed limiters - also known as Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA) - will use GPS data and/or traffic sign recognition cameras to work out what the speed limit is and then prevent you from exceeding it, even if you attempt to floor it anyway. 

“If the driver continues to drive above the speed limit for several seconds, the system should sound a warning for a few seconds and display a visual warning until the vehicle is operating at or below the speed limit again,” the European Commission said, EVO reports.

For drivers who have purchased new models of Volvo cars or a brand spanking Ford Focus recently will already have experience with the ISA as the brands have fitted speed limiters already. But it is going to be rolled out to all new cars from 7 July, AutoTraders reports. 

Can you turn them off? 

The European Transport and Safety Council (ETSC) has admitted that the speed limiter systems will come with an on/ off switch - at least initially. But despite that it is probably best to keep it turned on as you are going to have to get used to the safety measure in the coming years. 

The speed limiters are also part of a wider range of safety measures being introduced to vehicles including data loggers, autonomous emergency braking systems, lane keep assist, driver fatigue detection systems and more. 

If you want to learn more about mandatory speed limiters, AutoTrader has a fantastic video explainer - it is a few years old, so some of the dates are not accurate (government bureaucracy is a slow moving machine after all) but it is still a very useful watch. It is available via AutoTrader’s YouTube channel here.