The new government is being urged to officially adopt vehicle safety regulations newly implemented in the EU and Northern Ireland.

Thatcham Research has said crash avoidance is the future of automotive safety

The ‘New Vehicle General Safety Regulation’, also known as GSR2 or Regulation (EU) 2019/2144, came into effect on Sunday 7 July 2024, mandating a range of technical safety features be fitted to new cars as standard within the EU and Northern Ireland. These include intelligent speed assistance but also other advanced driver assistance systems such as autonomous emergency braking, driver drowsiness and attention warning and emergency lane keeping systems.

Such equipment, while likely to be included on many new cars in Britain, has not actually been mandated. The Department for Transport under the new government has confirmed that the Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA) laws that came into effect on 6 July 2024 “apply to the EU and Northern Ireland only, not Great Britain”.

There are growing calls for Britain to officially adopt the rules though, due to the road safety benefits.

Earlier this year, the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (PACTS) called for immediate implementation of the vehicle safety standards, which it said were world-leading. The organisation, which has over 40 years’ experience advising both Houses of Parliament on transport safety, has said the standards, along with other measures such as a national road safety strategy and graduated driver licensing, would help save thousands of lives.

Thatcham Research has also called for the new safety standards to be mandated across the UK as it says that crash avoidance is the future of automotive safety.

Northern Ireland has adopted the GSR2 requirements following the EU type approval process due to the Northern Ireland Protocol.

But with Britain yet to sign up to GSR2, which vehicle manufacturers will adhere to across the EU, Thatcham Research has warned that we could be “at risk of falling behind in automotive safety by not adopting it”.

Yousif Al Ani, principal engineer – ADAS at the automotive risk intelligence company, said: “Modern vehicles are very good at protecting occupants in the event of a collision through passive safety features, such as airbags and crumple zones, but these have limited benefit to vulnerable road users (VRUs).

“KSI (killed or seriously injured) statistics amongst VRUs remain stubbornly high at more than 11,000 each year. The key to reducing these numbers is through the wider introduction of active crash avoidance systems.”

However, the technology mandated by this directive is already found in most new cars, as manufacturers try to avoid the additional complexity of creating UK-specific variants, which increases the cost of bringing a vehicle to market.

Thatcham explained: “Where there is a difference in regulations within a specific region, manufacturers typically cater to the most complex market, leading to EU specification vehicles likely being sold in the UK.”

One other important thing to note is that existing cars on roads aren’t affected, as the regulation only applies to vehicles in the EU and Northern Ireland built after the cutoff date.

What are the new technologies and how do they work?

Fleets and drivers are being advised to acquaint themselves with the new technologies and ensure they know how they work.

Intelligent Speed Assist (ISA), which is already fitted to many pre-GSR2 vehicles, recognises traffic signs and provides an overspeed warning. It alerts the driver when the speed limit is exceeded to increase speed limit compliance and reduce the severity of collisions.

Warnings include visual and audio alerts, and haptic feedback through the accelerator pedal in some cases. The European Transport Safety Council says it should reduce collisions by 30% and a Norwegian study has indicated that ISA is the single most effective technology available for reducing injury on the road.

Thatcham Research has advised drivers that they must be aware that ISA is an assistance system and that they will remain liable for the safety of their vehicles.

Thatcham Research’s Yousif Al Ani said: “Incorrect information provided by ISA does not exempt drivers from speed limit infractions. It can also be overridden or switched off at any time.”

Deactivating the system only works for that journey though and in GSR2-compliant vehicles the technology is automatically re-enabled every time the car is started.

Fleet software firm FleetCheck meanwhile has said that fleets should make it clear that overriding the ISA system will not be tolerated.

“While this technology is not perfect, it will provide valuable guidance to drivers on the road in real time. They will almost always know when they are exceeding the speed limit.

“In risk management terms, tolerating any speeding offences is potentially questionable and, in our opinion, this technology makes it even more so. We are almost certainly moving into an era when there should be something approaching zero tolerance for speeding.

“There will no doubt be some pushback about this from some drivers who feel this kind of technology is invasive or annoying but it is difficult to argue with the positive safety impact, and ISA’s introduction is very much something that should be welcomed by fleets and relayed to drivers as a positive step that will help to protect them on the road.”

Fleets and drivers are warned though that the technology can sometimes misread speed limits or misapply them over a stretch of road.

“ISA tends to use a combination of GPS and visual reading of road signs, and this can lead to errors. Even the EU states that ultimately the responsibility of knowing the speed limit is down to the driver and this is where the ultimate responsibility lies,” said Golding.

Thatcham has also warned that drivers may be shown incorrect or out-of-date speed limits and said it’s crucial that maps should be regularly updated via over-the-air updates from the vehicle manufacturer. It’s also highlighted that temporary signs, such as roadworks, may conflict with valid map data and reiterated that drivers are always liable for the safe and legal progress of the vehicle.

Other technology mandated for ‘M1’ passenger cars by GSR2

The other features that drivers in Britain are now likely to see on new cars include Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB). This collision avoidance feature uses forward-facing cameras, RADARs and potentially other sensor technologies such as LIDAR to prevent collisions.

It scans the forward path of the vehicle for potential impact targets and applies braking to avoid or mitigate a collision. It applies to specific scenarios, such as car-to-car, car-to-pedestrian and car-to-cyclist in different orientations. The next phase of the EU requirements, effective from July 2026, will add requirements to support additional scenarios for pedestrians & cyclists.

AEB has been shown in studies to reduce car-to-car rear end collisions by around 50% and car-to-pedestrian collisions by around 30%. It also provides impact mitigation where a collision cannot be avoided, reducing the severity of injuries.

Thatcham has said the technology causes no noticeable impact to drivers, operating in the background with an extremely low false event rate.

Driver Drowsiness & Attention Warning (DDAW) is also mandated under the GSR2 rules and is an occupant monitoring feature using a driver-facing camera for direct driver monitoring.

It detects the position of the driver’s gaze and measures alertness through metrics such as how long the driver looks in one area or if the driver’s eyes are closing. Using this information, it alerts the driver when looking away from the road for too long or if drowsiness is detected.

GSR2 mandates that a new sensor is fitted on all vehicles to allow for basic attention and drowsiness monitoring from Phase 2, a key factor driving the introduction of this technology.

Emergency Lane Keeping System (ELKS) technology is also included in GSR2. This collision avoidance feature – which includes Emergency Lane Keeping Assist and Lane Support Systems – uses forward-facing cameras and radars to prevent a vehicle leaving the lane of travel.

Sensors detect when a driver crosses a road edge or crosses lane markings into the path of an oncoming vehicle and corrective steering is applied to remain in lane.

It seeks to prevent oncoming collisions which cause many fatalities due to the high closing speeds involved.

GSR2 mandates this feature, which is already fitted to almost all new premium vehicles due to inclusion in Euro NCAP, although with a lower fitment rate than AEB.

Further technology mandated by GSR2 

• Alcohol Interlock Installation Facilitation (AIIF) – This makes it easier to fit aftermarket alcohol interlock devices in vehicles
• Event Data Recorder (EDR) – Also known as a black box, it records and stores vehicle data shortly before, during, and immediately after a road traffic collision
• ESP (Electronic Stability Programme) – This helps to prevent a loss of control in cornering and during emergency steering by stabilising the car if it veers off its intended path
• Emergency Stop Signal (ESS) – When brakes are forcefully applied, the rear indicator lights will flash to alert other vehicles behind the car
• Reversing Detection Systems (RD) – This alerts the driver to the presence of people or objects at the rear of the vehicle with the primary aim of avoiding collisions when reversing
• Tyre Pressure Monitoring Systems (TPMS) – This monitors tyre air pressure and provides feedback in real-time to the driver to prevent accidents caused by under-inflated tyres
• Cybersecurity – This addresses the increase in connected vehicles on European roads which require robust cybersecurity to prevent them from being stolen
• Systems to replace driver control – This includes Level Three autonomous features which will pave the way for Automated Vehicles to be adopted in the EU

Further changes are on the way too. ‘Phase Three’ of the regulations kicks in from July 2026, mandating an increase in scope to include Advanced Driver Distraction Warning (ADDW) and additional pedestrian and cyclist AEB.