How Cars Can Now Prevent You From Ever Driving Over The Speed Limit
New York City is currently testing out a fleet of cars with the capability to control how fast a driver goes, preventing the car from ever exceeding the speed limit.
Though speed limit signs are used worldwide, they can’t always stop people from speeding uncontrollably. In New York City, new speed limit technology is being tested in cars to prevent them from accelerating over the limit. The tech would halt a driver’s ability to go any farther over the designated speed, which could create an astronomically safer driving environment on unmonitored roads.
New York City will be the first place in the country to test out a fleet of cars with speed limit technology. The tech installed in these vehicles would work in two different ways. The first signal that the driver is going over the limit is a blaring alarm, and the second will be an instantaneous cut-off of the accelerator.
Deputy Mayor of New York City for Operations Meera Joshi spoke to CNN about the trial program and the additional features of speed-limited cars. Fortunately, drivers will have the power to override the disabling of the accelerator with a notch under the steering wheel. This will allow the driver to speed up for 15 additional seconds in dire cases like swiftly changing lanes or keeping up with traffic flow.
The state-of-the-art fleet that will test out the speed limit technology in New York uses tech from a company called Telematics Technology. The company provides a variety of proficient tech for cars, including a combination of “navigation, safety, security, and communication.” The tech is inserted into a vehicle’s dashboard, barely occupying the interior workings of the car.
Telematics Technology utilizes GPS services around the country to record speed limits from every road and highway available. The data is then integrated with a vehicle’s software and signals to the driver when accelerating past the required limit. Telematics’s recorded data is also cross-referenced with a vehicle’s internal GPS system, helping to make more accurate calls about national speed limits and when they change.
Though this is a recent technological implementation, attempting to get car companies to produce vehicles with speed limit technology isn’t a new proposal. New York City’s trial fleet comes off of the National Transportation Safety Board’s request for the government to pressure manufacturers for upgraded construction, hoping a federal push would incentivize them to create safer cars. The organization’s desire for speed-limiting vehicles is a direct response to the recent uptick in drunk driving collisions in America, which has stayed at the same rate since the pandemic’s beginning.
Motor collisions in the U.S. jumped drastically between January and June 2022. Last month, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released the data on collisions occurring between those six months, with more than 20,000 people dead from serious car injuries. The sudden inflation of motor-related deaths has galvanized national groups to push manufacturers to invest in safer production, which includes installing speed limit technology in new cars.
With car companies commonly installing autonomous driving software into their new vehicles, the logical next step would be instituting automated safety functions, too. Though the fleet trial is starting in New York City, the promising success of this speed limit technology could catalyze a movement across the nation.
