UK, EU Cars (But Not Bikes, Yet) Fitted With Speed Limiters

[advrider]

The European Commission might be changing the way you drive. As reported by the British Motorcyclists Federation (BMF), new cars sold in the UK and across Europe will be mandated to have Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA) software installed in them. That is exactly what it sounds like. Cars will have built-in speed limiters.

Thank the European Commission

This comes as part of the General Safety Regulation passed in the EU. Mandates state “new models/types of vehicles introduced on the market,” beginning in July 2022, must arrive outfitted with this software. It will be mandatory for all new cars beginning in July 2024, ostensibly to give manufacturers time to retrofit their existing production models.

But Not Motorcycles (Yet)

Thanks to lobbying efforts by the BMF, as well as FEMA (Federation of European Motorcyclists’ Associations) and FIM (Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme), motorcycles are not included in this legislation. 

BMF’s Political and Technical Services Director Anna Zee says, “There is currently no legislation mandating the fitting of ISA systems to motorcycles; the EU is aware that a bike is a different beast and currently agrees that if fitted in future on bikes use of ISA will be optional.”

Don’t Rush It

Since we’re hurtling toward a Red Barchetta future here, let’s take a step back and look at what all this means. The European Commission describes the way a car outfitted with ISA behaves in one of four ways: cascaded acoustic warning; cascaded vibrating warning; haptic feedback through the acceleration pedal; or speed control function. Manufacturers choose their own adventure there. The first two only provide audible or tactile feedback to the driver. “Haptic feedback through the acceleration pedal” means the pedal pushes back against your foot. “Speed control function” means the car slows down for you.

There may be a ray of sunshine here, though. Since cars will be outfitted and motorcycles (so far) will not, it might make passes a lot easier.

I don’t know, I’m grasping at straws, here.

Can We Hack That Programming?

Tuners of old will become modern software hackers, no doubt, and (hopefully) work to quietly disable these annoying-at-best features.

Will this software bleed out of Europe and into the global market? Maybe. But you better believe that where the EU law doesn’t apply, people will howl until manufacturers make sure drivers themselves can disable these “features.” On the other hand, a whole giant mess of people have already voluntarily plugged a snooper into their OBD II port, so who can say?

Will this software bleed out of cars and into motorcycles? You know someone is going to try. Hopefully we’ll have people like Anna Zee to keep fighting it off.

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