EU requires all new cars to have cameras facing the driver’s face to monitor their behaviour

[NutellaEllaElla]

https://www.carscoops.com/2026/07/eu-driver-monitoring-mandate/

Is anyone else unhappy about this? I hate how technology is invading my life. In my car it gets speed limits wrong all the time, it fights me trying to change lanes without indicating (and I don’t need to, again the car doesn’t know), there’s just so much it gets wrong and the tech itself is a distraction. I’m all for options, but I want to be able to turn it off as well please. Is there no end? Can we resist??

Same here although it gets the hump when my heavy work bag is on the passenger seat and screams at me about the sealt belt. I just ignore it.

They’re going to see an awful lot of women plucking their beards and the general population picking their noses.

Advanced drivers are a specific subset of drivers who've had additional training. Not John from down the road who thinks he's amazing at driving!

I do indicate all the time, personally, so would have to re-train my brain to do an advanced driver course!

Yes but if it can save your life if you fall asleep then surely it has to be a good thing. The amount of drivers that do and cause accidents is high.

Only that they do already. Steering wheel being on the other side and all that…

Surprised at how many don't know how to use their own cars. The speed thing you can always turn off, not permanently but you can turn it off.

The lane thing annoys me... Sometimes there aren't any other road users so nobody to indicate to. The collision thing has nearly caused an accident a few times due to me practically having heart failure when it goes off!

The regs are for closed loop. There is no data, and no info going anywhere. Not in the regs. Closed loop real time monitoring. And a warning chime or message if distraction is detected.

Here's the explanation: https://xtdriving.com/2017/01/09/direction-indicators/

If your lorry driver friends / family are seeing people not indicating, that's not advanced driving, as you signal if somebody will benefit. The fact another vehicle is in the vicinity means you signal, as they'll benefit.

My car has a sensor on the A pillar that monitors where I am looking, couldn’t care less to be honest. If I take my eyes off the road it’ll fire a warning on the screen. It does get upset at roundabouts when I’m coming up to one and looking right. I just ignore it.

My car isn’t for the paranoid, as it’s got a total of 9 cameras inside and out.

You're really not. You should only indicate when there's another driver, cyclist or pedestrian around. It's designed to make drivers think.

When I did the advanced driving course my teacher asked me who I was indicating to. Me "uum, don't know, there might be someone around?". Instructor "then you aren't paying attention". You only indicate when there's someone to tell.

The camera is more of a bloody distraction if you ask me, at a round about looking to go safely and it's bing bonging at me because I'm not watching the road.... But the noises it makes causes me to look to see why, so it is definitely more of a distraction! If I look at the dash it tells me off 🤣 I like the idea of it for if it thinks I need a rest, but some of it is a little ott.

Really ? What about pedestrians? Or the car you haven’t seen yet ? It’s good to indicate regardless so you’re in the habit of doing it

You should be aware of all that is around you. I don't need to indicate every time to know I need to do it if there are other drivers/pedestrians.

It's supposed to be checking if you are concentrating on driving or nodding off at the wheel and warns you if you are spending too many seconds looking at the dash not the road, it's meant to be a closed loop system, the worry is some may actually be cloud based so accessible to the car manufacturer's and maybe others. Sounds like a good idea in principle, apparently loss of concentration is a major factor in road accidents and deaths, but the devil is in the detail and what happens if it fails?

I’m a RoSPA advanced tutor and he’s correct. Indication is for advising others of your intentions. If there is nobody around there is no need.

If you are correctly paying attention and gathering all the information around you, you know whether a signal is needed or not.

I usually look at the dash when it is emergency beeping to tell me to put my hands on the wheel which are already on the fucking wheel.

If everything in the car is an emergency beep then what happens is you end up ignoring them all and you miss the actual emergency.

Bit of masking tape over the lens should stop that nonsense.

I e got a new Kia and well let's just say it FUCKS ME OFF

i need a break! I need to slow down! I need to not brake unless there's 50ft of space! I need to take my sunglasses off! I need to not have my arm ober the steering wheel!

AND

i can't even turn them off for good oh no I had to do it EVERY SINGLE TIME I GET IN THE CAR.

🫣🤣

Don't buy a Tesla then.. I've always wondered why vehicles aren't automatically equipped with exterior cameras, makes Life much more simple in a case of an RTC.

Yes because car manufacturers will minimise their design costs by making as much as possible standard across all models. They already have to make a "mirror image" model for UK but can minimise design costs by literally just flipping the CAD files for affected components but it would cost them more to do an alternate design without at least a space for a camera - the actual electronics might be an optional cost but any car driver who wants to cross the channel will have to have one so there will be an increasing number - 5 years after they become mandatory in europe it will become difficult to buy a decent nearly-new car in the UK without this feature, and 10 years after that most cars will have it apart from a small number of >15yo cars that have survived, and occasional newer ones whose original "from new" driver decided they would never take the car across to Europe so didn't get it installed (if it remains optional for us - a lot of new EU laws get incorporated into UK law too sooner or later)

My driving instructor used to say to me 'who you indicating for? The queen?'

🤣🤣. You should have been concentrating enough to see the road and around you. If you indicate willy nilly then that action in itself soon becomes in place of looking

😂😂😂

My Honda annoyingly beeps if you go over the speed limit, but only 3 beeps and then it stops, which is good because it gets the speed limit wrong sometimes.

It also has the driver attention level thing but it has only flashed a picture of a cup of tea at me once and that was when I was actually pulling off the motorway to a services so it was fair, I did need a cup of tea.

I was driving down a side road to our railway station to drop off DH, suddenly my car did an emergency stop. To say we were both shocked is an understatement. Apparently, my car has a sensor on the roof, and there were some low branches on a roadside buddleia.

On the other hand we are not all perfect and you can not notice that bike or pedestrian emerging round a corner, for me better to be safe than sorry and it's a good habit to get into.