Dan Strong's column

Ever wondered why the indicators on your car are orange? Or why, wherever you are in the world, traffic lights are red, amber and green?

Well, the answer’s largely down to the United Nations. In 1968, it drew up a draft agreement called the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic.

It’s pretty long, but the basic idea it set out was that, with a few simple steps, much of the death and destruction on public highways could be averted.

While its contents were not legally binding, they were almost universally adopted – and closely studied by car firms developing new models.

After all, in 1968, Boeing had just slapped the wings on the 747 – and rental companies such as Hertz, Avis and Europcar had wasted no time in putting eager tourists behind the wheel.

So, a panel of experts – including safety specialists and engineers – got together and created a set of rules to ensure anybody travelling overseas would be familiar with the rudimentary rules of the road.

While it was at it, the panel set out a load of other protocols. For example, it suggested that brake lights should be red, and illuminate when the driver pressed the stop pedal. It helps to keep us all safe, you see.

The rot set in pretty much straight away – but the first warning signs of this don’t seem to have been spotted until around a decade ago.

In 1998, one bright spark picked up on the fact that some auto manufacturers were developing radar-based automatic cruise control.

All of a sudden, there was work to do. Should cars driving themselves also activate the brake lights automatically? Flashing lamps on the roof could alert other road users to the fact that the person in the vehicle which has just charged up inches behind them is less interested in stopping distances than they should be. Brows were surely furrowed in the usually ordered debating chamber.

Then, in 2000, headlamps that could illuminate around corners were announced, and the UN team got to work. Until that point, the outlining legislation here was simple – because brightness could be controlled and lights pointed forward. Now, who knew where to start on a system that would meet international approval?

While this was all going on, companies such as Honda were taking people like me to test tracks to sample cars that not only slowed themselves down, but also steered round corners without driver input!

“What would the UN make of this?” I asked the engineer at one such test. “Ah,” he said. “The system will know when you are not holding the wheel, and so switch itself off. This car cannot drive itself.”

I quickly showed him that it could – by closing my eyes and jiggling the wheel very gently.

The car didn’t work out I was paying no attention whatsoever, and lapped the circuit without a hitch. I thought I was clever – although the engineer looked less than impressed!

On the open road, such a stunt isn’t feasible. There are speed limits and road signs (also standardised by the UN) which need to be read, as well as highway rules that have to be remembered and adhered to.

So for the time being, it seems no one needs to make the big decision about when finally to exclude drivers from the debate on road safety.

Yet if you have read our news section this week, you will have spotted a story that should have the UN road safety team’s blood running cold. The new Vauxhall Insignia looks set to be the first car to include an electronic eye that will ‘read’ highway signs and road markings.

Now, imagine if that sort of technology was combined with self-steering systems such as those being offered by Honda. Surely it’s only a matter of time before the person behind the wheel becomes a second thought in the legislative process of putting cars on the road?