PARIS — Renault Group says it can add a 180 kph (112 mph) pace limiter to Renault and Dacia model fashions to assist cut back site visitors accidents, following the same transfer by Volvo, as a part of the automaker’s environmental and social technique. 

Renault didn’t say whether or not all of the group’s fashions would have the limiter. Future high-performance fashions might be branded as Alpine reasonably than Renault, CEO Luca de Meo has mentioned.

De Meo advised shareholders final week at Renault’s annual general meeting that three elements – extreme or inappropriate pace, driver distraction and alcohol – trigger three-quarters of all deadly highway accidents in Europe, with pace the contributing consider 30 p.c of such deaths.

He mentioned Renault fashions would even have a cruise management system that decreased pace routinely if unsafe circumstances had been detected, beginning with the approaching Renault Megane-e full-electric compact in 2022.

Volvo said in 2019 that it could restrict prime pace in its fashions to 180 kph. The automaker mentioned on the time that the transfer was a part of its “Imaginative and prescient 2020” assertion, which aimed to have zero fatalities or severe accidents for passengers in new Volvos.

German automakers, citing extreme accidents on the nation’s speed-limit-free autobahns, agreed within the 2000s to put in a 250 kph (155 mph) digital pace limiter in non-sports automotive fashions. 

The World Well being Group has identified speed as a key risk factor in accidents, with an affect on each incidence and severity. A 1 kph enhance in pace interprets to a 3 p.c enhance in accident threat, with a 4 to five p.c enhance for crashes that end in fatalities, the WHO says. In one other instance, the danger of loss of life for occupants in a automotive concerned in a crash at 80 kph is 20 occasions that for a automotive touring at 30 kph.

Among the many WHO’s suggestions is for design options to restrict car speeds. The group additionally discovered that on common, car prime pace has been rising at the same time as pace limits keep roughly the identical. For instance, solely 10 p.c of vehicles offered in France in 1967 may exceed 150 kph, however as of 2006 practically each automotive offered in France may accomplish that.

Along with the pace limiter, Renault mentioned it could add different options designed to scale back threat and severity of accidents:

• A “Security Rating” in partnership with insurance coverage corporations will analyse knowledge from sensors to encourage protected driving
• A “Security Coach” will course of highway knowledge to warn of impending risks or dangers
• A “Secure Guardian” will routinely sluggish the car if it detects harmful driving, resembling coming into a curve too quick, or a drowsy driver.
• “Firefighter Entry” alerts rescue staff a few battery fireplace, lowering response time by as much as two hours, Renault says. This characteristic is already inbuilt to full-electric autos however might be added to plug-in hybrid fashions.
• The “Rescue Code” is a QR code that helps emergency staff establish a car and its structural info. Renault says it may cut back passenger-extraction time by about quarter-hour.