From 2022, all new cars sold in the EU will have to be fitted with new safety features including a speed limiter that could make it impossible to go above the speed limit.
Basically, the European Union has proposed new safety rules that will see vehicles fitted with a device known as an Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA) system as of three years from now.
That ISA will use GPS to figure out how quick you're allowed to go and then keep your car at that speed, but no more.
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A deal on that particular piece of legislation was passed provisionally yesterday evening in Strasbourg. It doesn't just cover the speed limiters, mind. There are a whole load of other features too.
That includes - but is not limited to - new requirements for crash testing, and compulsory driver assistance systems such as Automated Emergency Braking with pedestrian and cyclist detection, as well as systems that keep the car in lane.
I think we can all agree that anything that stops cars from hitting cyclists and pedestrians can only be a good thing, right?
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Lorries aren't exempt, either. The rules also ensure that lorries and vans will have new standards to meet with regard to vision. That's aimed at stopping situations in which the drivers of larger vehicles can't see other road users or pedestrians.
Again, that can only be a positive development.
A recent survey of British drivers, conducted by road safety charity Brake and insurer Direct Line, found that nearly all drivers in the UK think that cars should come with these new features as standard.
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The survey - which spoke to more than 2,000 drivers - found that nine out of 10 drivers were in agreement.
More than half of respondents also said that they wouldn't pay more for a car to get these features, however. That shows that the EU legislation will mean that car companies are forced to put them in there anyway.
Joshua Harris, the campaign director at Brake, told The Metro: "This is a landmark day for road safety. These measures will provide the biggest leap forward for road safety this century, perhaps even since the introduction of the seat belt.
"The Government must commit to adopting these lifesaving regulations, no matter what happens with Brexit, with a recent Brake and Direct Line report finding that nine in 10 UK drivers wanted car safety standards in the UK to remain at least as high as those in the EU, post-Brexit."
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As you might imagine, some people disagree.
The president of the Automotive Association (AA), Edmund King, told the Daily Mail that the technology might actually make cars less safe. He argued that the 'best speed limiter is the driver's right foot' and that drivers must 'do the right speed in the right situation'.
He explained: "The right speed is often below the speed limit, for example, outside a school with children around, but with ISA there may be a temptation to go at the top speed allowed which may not be appropriate.
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"Sometimes a little speed also helps to keep safe on the road, for example, overtaking a tractor on a country road or joining a motorway."
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