German Government Rejects Intelligent Speed Adaptation Systems -- Motorcyclists Agree
IVsource.net
28 May 2001

Even while government-sponsored ISA trials are underway elsewhere in Europe, the German government registered its disagreement with the concept at a UN conference in April.

In its official paper circulated to the meeting of the United Nations' Working Group on Road Safety held in Geneva in April, the German government clearly stated its objection to external intervention in the speed of vehicles.

Intelligent Speed Adaptation (ISA) systems aim to ensure compliance with maximum imposed speed limits by taking the throttle control of a vehicle from its driver temporarily.  Trial ISA systems are underway in both the Netherlands and in Sweden (click to review previous IVsource articles on those projects).  One version of the technology uses GPS readings to determine when the vehicle is within the controlled area, whereupon the control unit gives speed commands to the vehicle's electronic engine management system.

Problems with ISA Identified

The opposition of Germany is based on three main arguments. They consider the principles of ISA to be contradictory to those of the Road Traffic Regulations contained in the 1968 Vienna Convention, which clearly stipulates as one of its fundamental principles that control of the vehicle can not be taken from its driver (see text below).  Germany also refutes the common argument that ISA and speed limiters, such as those commonly fitted to heavy goods vehicles, are similar technologies.  Speed limiters are regulated to a specific final speed value but still give drivers the ability to adapt their way of driving, while the ISA system reduces the speed in accordance with local speed limits by allowing external control of the vehicle.  Thirdly, dissenters claim that ISA can actually have an adverse impact on traffic safety, by making it impossible for the driver to accelerate out of trouble, if necessary.

Motorcyclists Agree

The Federation of European Motorcyclists' Associations (FEMA) agrees completely with this position.  In 1999, the International Riders' Public Conference held in Mulhouse, France, adopted a joint resolution setting out a similar position which was endorsed later by the international motorcycling community.  Motorcyclists have all experienced a situation where accelerating was the only option they had to avoid an accident.  They see ISA as a potential threat to their safety in those cases.

Text of the relevant articles in the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic of 1968:

- Article 8, §5:  "Every driver shall at all times be able to control his vehicle and to guide it."

- Article 13:  "Every driver of a vehicle shall in all circumstances have his vehicle under control so as to be able to exercise due and proper care and to be at all times in a position to perform all manoeuvres required of him.  He shall, when adjusting the speed of his vehicle, pay constant regard to the circumstances, in particular the lie of the land, the state of the road, the condition and load of his vehicle, the weather conditions and the density of traffic, so as to be able to stop his vehicle within his range of forward vision and short of any foreseeable obstruction." 

Click here to see an index of the Treaty Document.

[Top]