Europe is imposing driver assistance systems on all new cars from July 7, 2024. While the basic principle is to improve safety on board vehicles, drivers’ feelings are not always in line with this objective.
Speed limit change beep, speeding beep, lack of vigilance beep, lane departure beep… If you have the impression that your new car is speaking to you in Morse code (or beeping), this is perfectly normal. This means that your car complies with the new European standards. You will have to get used to it.
The European Commission has required car manufacturers to integrate new driver aids into all new vehicles sold in Europe. Known by the somewhat barbaric name of Global Safety Regulation 2 or GSR2, this new regulation applies from July 7, 2024. Drivers are certainly not done complaining about this new standard.
18 new elements imposed in vehicles
The GSR2 standard therefore adds as standard (i.e., non-optional) a certain number of driving aids and other technologies on board cars, trucks and buses. The main ones to remember for automobiles are:
- Traffic sign recognition with overspeed warning;
- Automatic emergency braking (AEBS) with pedestrian and cyclist detection;
- Driver drowsiness warning;
- Advanced Driver Distraction Alert warning;
- Lane Keeping Aid;
- Lane change alert;
- Reverse detection with camera or sensors;
- Rear parking assistance;
- Emergency stop signal;
- Tire pressure monitoring system;
- Event data recorders (“black boxes”).
Many models did not wait to be forced to do so to integrate all the elements that have become mandatory as standard. These features were already necessary to shine in the Euro NCAP crash tests. The biggest revolution is that this equipment must be standard on the most entry-level models.
Gilles le Borgne, Renault’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO), said in an interview on Sud Radio on June 29 that this represented around €300 of equipment per vehicle. But for some models, the modifications were more significant and could represent up to €1,000 more.
Vehicles now unsaleable without this aid
Models that have not been brought into compliance with the GSR2 standard will be unsaleable from July 7. In fact, some models in this situation have already been registered by dealers, in order to have a few more months to sell off their stocks.
Electric cars, even if they are more recent, are also affected. Models such as the Renault Zoé, Renault Twingo, Nissan Leaf or VW e-UP are at the end of their career for this reason, but they are not the only electric models affected. The Dacia Spring was also renewed early, compared to the normal life cycle of the model, for this reason.
New technologies with more than questionable effectiveness
For drivers, the desire is generally strong to go and deactivate some of these new driving aids which can seem very intrusive. The relief will then only be short-lived, because the regulations require manufacturers to reactivate these different aids each time the car is restarted.
Renault also stands out by offering a very practical shortcut button, allowing you to configure alerts as you wish. For other manufacturers, manipulations can become more laborious within the on-board system and its submenus. The brands are also particularly unequal when it comes to alert beeps: for Chinese and Korean manufacturers, it is a real auditory punishment, while European manufacturers have thought of making these sounds (or driving punctuations) much more acceptable.
These new electronic crutches are not necessarily bad. It is still advisable to keep them active. What is more problematic is that some of these aids are sometimes ineffective. The reading of signs, and by extension the overspeed warning, is very uneven depending on the manufacturer. Some electric vehicles that we have tested in recent weeks were able to invent a 50 km/h limit for us in the middle of a 130 km/h motorway. Why? We will never know, the data was in any case very erroneous without a shadow of a doubt.
Unfortunately, there are still far too many errors to be able to rely on these driving aids. This is still a problem for an element that has become mandatory. The same goes for the famous phantom braking, often attributed to Tesla, but which also concerns other brands.
Drivers must therefore be aware of these new aids made compulsory on board new vehicles, but also of their limits, which are still numerous.
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