Is Great Britain playing catch-up on advanced vehicle safety?
Following a consultation, the Government has confirmed it will require 18 advanced safety technologies on new mass-produced vehicles entering the GB market. It is a significant step, but the legislation is not yet in force, and Great Britain remains some way behind the EU.
How far behind is Great Britain?
The EU’s General Safety Regulation 2 (GSR2) was phased in from July 2022 to July 2024, with the final requirements for cars and vans completing in July 2026. For cars and vans, GSR2 is now fully live. Two heavy-vehicle requirements — direct vision and event data recorders — do not apply to all new lorries, buses and coaches until January 2029.
The GB mandate does not yet specify a date for when the legislation will come into force. Once it does, phased timetables of 12–48 months apply, meaning full coverage of new vehicles entering the GB market may not arrive until 2029–2031. Measured against the EU’s July 2024 milestone for all new vehicles, Great Britain is roughly five to seven years behind. The gap is narrowest on direct vision and event data recorders, which happen to be the two technologies the EU is also phasing in latest.
Where the GB package differs
There are also two notable differences still to be ironed out. GB type approval is limited to mass-produced vehicles, with low-volume and special-purpose vehicles largely excluded at this stage. And while 18 of the 19 GSR2 technologies are being adopted, the alcohol interlock interface has been left out for now, although the Government accepts that most manufacturers will fit it anyway, to keep GB vehicles aligned with those sold in the EU and Northern Ireland.
Fitting the technology is the easier half
One of the main talking points is whether drivers know how to use these features. The consultation flagged a clear need for driver education, but the Government’s response was only that it will “consider” this, and no public campaign has been committed to. There is no obvious precedent to follow either: no equivalent EU-wide public information campaign accompanied the GSR2 rollout, with communication left largely to manufacturers, and its effectiveness has not been evaluated.
The evidence suggests fitting the technology is the easier half of the job. A Which? survey of more than 1,500 UK drivers found that 54% disable at least one core driver assistance system some of the time, with 46% switching off intelligent speed assistance, one of the two technologies that also attracted the most opposition in the DfT consultation.
What the numbers suggest
Because GSR2 has only recently completed its rollout for cars and vans, real-world data on how far these technologies reduce casualties is not yet available. The modelling is encouraging, however. The European Commission estimates that GSR2 could save more than 25,000 lives and avoid at least 140,000 serious injuries by 2038. On the GB side, TRL’s cost-benefit analysis for the DfT assessed the exact package the Government has now confirmed — all technologies except the alcohol interlock interface — and estimated it could prevent approximately 14,000 killed or seriously injured casualties over a 15-year appraisal period from 2025 to 2039, with a benefit-to-cost ratio of 5.4.
A step in the right direction
So Great Britain does fall behind the EU on the rollout of these technologies in new vehicles. But this is a significant step in the right direction, and clearly in line with the Road Safety Strategy published in January 2026, which targets a 65% reduction in deaths and serious injuries by 2035.
The main concern is how effectively this is communicated, and whether the sheer number of new systems increases driver confusion or distraction. It also remains unclear whether there will be any consistent approach to how these technologies are implemented and presented across the wide range of manufacturers in the UK market.
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