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Driving in Greece is not for amateurs or the faint of heart. I learned this first-hand on a recent vacation with Mr. Best in Show. After a cruise through the Cyclades and the Dodecanese we rented a Toyota Auris hybrid and set off for Olympia, Delphi, and Kalambaka. Driving conditions--spectacular cloudless weather—could not have been better. The roads were in excellent condition, and signage included transliterated place name information. We were confident that our 1000-kilometer trek would be worry free.
Winding road in Crete. Photo credit: Maxpixel/CC0
However. Our previous driving experiences in Tuscany and Provence did not prepare us to share the road with drivers who generally treat "no passing" zones as challenges and speed limits as nonexistent. This, despite the fact that drivers—at least drivers who have properly-equipped cars—can’t claim ignorance at least about speed limits.
When I took over the driving I noticed a number below the graphic indicating whether the vehicle battery was charging or discharging. Sometimes the number showed as white on a red circle; other times it was red on white. Sometimes it disappeared altogether. Mr. BIS pointed out that this mystery number was the speed limit. Sure enough, our smart Auris somehow knew the speed limit.
The standard method for detecting speed limits is simple enough. An onboard camera scans the verge. When software recognizes a speed-limit sign, the numerical limit magically appears on the dashboard. Neural networks provide the intelligence. I had speculated that the sign itself was "broadcasting" the speed limit to a receiver in the car. The camera makes more sense. Toyota claims that its technology recognizes signs that comply with those approved by the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic. Yes, there is an international convention on road traffic. No, the United States is not a signatory; most of Europe and parts of Asia and South America have signed on.
The technology which makes this happen has been around for several years and was proposed in the first decade of the 21st century. Cars sold in Europe have this capability along with other components of an ADAS system. Since signs are standard, and the sign-reading cameras appear to be generally available, why didn’t our rentals (a Fiat and a Peugot in Italy and France) have this equipment? I ran across a couple of research articles about ADAS penned by Italian researchers, yet as far as I can tell, Italy does not require that cars sold in the country have any of these technologies.
Diagram showing how car-mounted camera captures speed-limit data. Photo credit: Toyota Global
After poking around a phenomenal trove of European Union documents on road safety, I failed to find any requirements for specific safety technologies. The EU did establish a 10-year plan to lower traffic fatality rates; participation by individual countries was essentially optional, however. About a year ago the European Commission distributed a document, "A European strategy on Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems, a milestone towards cooperative, connected and automated mobility," that sets goals and standards for C-ITS, including specific services for "day 1" implementation—including in-vehicle signage and speed limits. The Commission has set 2019 as its goal for coordinated C-ITS deployment.
Back to Greece, where we found the in-vehicle speed limit displays very useful. Unfortunately, cars are not automatically slowed down to meet the standard. We also came within a gnat’s eyelash of a head-on collision with a speed demon who decided that the No Passing sign did not apply to him. Greek authorities admit that the main barriers to safer roads are lack of both traffic law enforcement and observance. Technology that slows down a speeding car, or stops one from passing two semis and a car in a no-passing zone on an undivided highway … probably not in the immediate future.
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