A trial of Intelligent Speed Adaptation (ISA) technology in New South Wales found 89 per cent of motorists reduced the amount of time they spent speeding when the dashboard device was installed in their vehicle.
The ISA devices use GPS technology linked to a map of every road and its speed limit in the region, unlike previous devices for which drivers entered the speed limits themselves.
The system beeps repeatedly if the speed limit is exceeded, warning the driver to slow down. The Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA) is currently mapping the speed limits of every road in the state and hopes to do quality checks in mid-2011 before releasing the technology.
The system was the subject of a six-month trial by the RTA involving 100 vehicles in the Illawarra region between September 2009 and March this year.
Roads minister David Borger said the trial was the biggest of its kind anywhere in the world.
"ISA helps drivers reduce their speed. It actually warns them when they're going above a speed limit in their local area," he said.
"Road safety modelling from the trial suggests if every vehicle in the Illawarra was equipped with ISA technology, there would be an 8.4 per cent reduction in fatalities and a 5.9 per cent drop in road injuries.”
But Borger said the device would not be made compulsory.
"This is not something we want to impose to make people's lives more difficult," he said.
"I think we need a few more years of research and understanding of the application of the system before we could even consider questions about making this mandatory, even for people who do break the speed limit on a regular basis."
