‘Virginia is for lovers’ has long been the slogan of the US state, which also has some of the lowest speed limits in North America, and now its lawmakers are looking to crack down on motorists caught speeding multiple times.
A new bill proposed by Virginia House of Delegates member Patrick Hope would require motorists who’ve repeatedly been caught driving recklessly or hitting speeds of more than 160km/h (100mph) to fit speed-limiting technology to their vehicles.
As part of the so-called Intelligent Speed Assistance Program, an offender’s vehicles will be required to be fitted with a speed-limiter – the cost of which would be shouldered by the offending motorist – or it can’t be legally driven.
This means offenders who own vehicles too old to accept the technology would need to upgrade to a newer model to comply.
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The finer details of the proposal – such as how it’ll be enforced – are yet to be detailed, though the bill has reached the Virginian General Assembly. If passed, it’ll go into effect by July 2026.
Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA) systems aren’t new, having been mandated in Europe in July 2022. All new cars sold in Europe and the UK have been required to be fitted with the technology since July 7, 2024.
There, the ISA system is triggered when a car exceeds the posted speed limit by three per cent, and can either warn drivers they’re exceeding the speed limit or even prevent them from doing so.
Europe’s ISA systems use GPS and traffic sign data to display the posted speed limit of the road on which a car is travelling on its dashboard.
There are four different levels of feedback which carmakers can choose to implement in their vehicles for the ISA system. These are:
- Cascaded acoustic warning
- Cascaded vibrating warning
- Haptic feedback through the acceleration pedal
- Speed control function
One or more of these is required to meet the ISA regulation.
Though the ISA tech is designed to prevent speeding, it can’t stop drivers from exceeding the limit, since operators of vehicles fitted with a speed control function can override the system by pressing harder on the throttle.
Drivers can also switch off the system after they start their vehicle, though it’ll default to on each time they shut the vehicle down.
While some new cars sold in Australia are fitted with the technology, there are no Australian Design Rules (ADR) relevant to the safety system as yet.
Elsewhere in the world, there have been proposals for ISAs to be introduced in California, albeit under a far more lenient trigger of 10mph (16km/h) above the speed limit.
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