Sat-nav

Technology designed to prevent cars breaking the speed limit is to go on trial in the UK.

Transport for London (TfL) is inviting bids from firms to supply an Intel­ligent Speed Adaption (ISA) system to use on up to 10 of its own vehicles.

Each car will have a special digital map of the city downloaded into their sat-navs, which has all the road speeds listed. The plan is that the proposed ISA device will then pinpoint the driver’s location and tell if they are exceeding the limit.

It will stop them from going too fast by taking control of the accelerator pedal and vibrating the throttle, or giving an audible warning to let drivers know they’re speeding. A TfL spokesman stressed it’s only a pilot project scheduled to last two years. But a line in the bid document, seen by Auto Express, says the organisation is “potentially looking for a longer-term partner which, if the initial trial on TfL vehicles proves successful, would be interested in working to promote the technology throughout London”.

It also states that the system must work with minimal modification in cars, vans, buses and taxis – a clear indication of what’s in store.

Plans are already underway to create the special digital map of London with all of the limits listed available for download by the public on to their sat-navs. The program issues a beep if it detects that the driver is exceeding the limit.