Intelligent Speed Assistance

Intelligent Speed Assist (ISA) is a system that monitors the speed of a vehicle when it exceeds the posted speed road limit. It warns the driver to slow down.

Vehicle crash can be avoided by monitoring speed especially in highways and accident-prone areas. Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA) is a system that monitors the speed of a vehicle. It is known by another similar name as “Intelligent Speed Adaptation.”

How ISA works

When the vehicle exceeds the posted speed limit in a certain road, ISA alerts the driver to slow down. It automatically warns the driver through audio and visual alert system. Watch this video about Intelligent Speed Adaptation (ISA) from the New South Wales Centre for Road Safety.

An advisory system warns the driver every time he enters a speed zone. It can also be an intrusion system where the vehicle driving systems are automatically controlled to slow down the speed of the vehicle.

Intelligent speed assistance uses information about the road stated speed limit. This information is acquired using digital roadway maps with coordinates as well as data on the speed limit per location.

Two types of ISA systems

Passive system works by simply warning the driver when  traveling at a speed in excess of the speed limit. While in active system, the ISA system arbitrates or automatically corrects the car speed to follow the speed limit.

Passive ISA systems

Passive system is simply the driver’s alert system. It alerts the driver that he/she is speeding, gives information about the allowed maximum speed on a certain road and permits the driver to choose what action to be taken, whether to speed up or slow down .

Active ISA system

The active ISA system normally reduces and automatically limits the vehicle speed by controlling the engine or braking systems. Though it can control the engine automatically, active ISA system can provide the driver an option to override the system so that he can disable the system if necessary but on a temporary basis only.

Some say that there are still major work to be accomplished to develop ISA technology. According to them, it is not accurate enough to cope with different situations. But ISA technology claims it has benefited from the recent advances in satellite navigation systems. Even before these advances, several studies were done to evaluate ISA technologies and they provided remarkably results. Several field trials confirmed the accuracy, efficiency, stability and dependability of ISA technology.

The delivery of updated speed limit data is difficult, but it is not so that it is impossible to be done. The data on speed limits are currently held and stored, but in a variation of formats and by variety of authorities. First, mapping of all speed limits is required. By doing this, an administrative structure will be created to ensure the quality assurance of this data source. Once a speed map has been complied, the updating of this data source is needed for the implementation.

Intelligent Speed Assistance or ISA technology as we all know, is tough and dependable. It is technically simple, simpler than any other automatic devices.

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