General Safety Regulation comes into force
The European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) welcomes the entry into force of the General Safety Regulation (GSR) as part of EU’s efforts to halve the number of fatal and serious injuries from traffic accidents in the EU by 2030.
EU roads are by far the safest in the world. While there are 45 million more motor vehicles on European roads today, EU road fatalities have fallen by some 50% since 2008. Maintaining this trend is important for an industry that prides itself on designing, producing and selling safe vehicles in probably one of world’s the most demanding markets. Indeed, much of the €59 billion that the automotive sector invests in R&D annually is dedicated to safety-related technologies.
ACEA welcomes the entry into force of the General Safety Regulation (GSR), which sets out stricter new crash regulations and the latest safety technologies that must be included as standard in new vehicle types as of this month.
These technologies include advanced driver assistant systems (ADAS) such as:
- Reversing detection
- Emergency lane keeping systems
- Advanced emergency braking – a system that starts braking manoeuvres automatically if a collision is imminent
- Intelligent speed assistance – a system that helps the driver not to speed
- Emergency stop signal
- Driver drowsiness and attention warning
- Event data recorders, which will support accident research in the future
In addition, commercial vehicles will include:
- Pedestrian and cyclist collision warning
- Blind spot information, which identifies vulnerable road users entering the blind spot area of the vehicle
- Direct vision for drivers, which increases visible areas to enable vulnerable road users to be seen
- Tyre pressure monitoring
Several of these safety systems are of course already widely available and in use today, but now will come as standard in all new vehicle types, with further improvements.
There is of course no room for complacency. Everyone agrees that road casualties should be further reduced, with the aim of working towards Vision Zero. Vehicle technology however is not the only way to achieve this: it must be combined with safer driver behaviour, better enforcement of existing traffic rules and, very importantly, improved road infrastructure.
Everyone agrees that road casualties should be further reduced. Vehicle technology however is not the only way to achieve this: it must be combined with safer driver behaviour, better enforcement of existing traffic rules and improved road infrastructure.
