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??

I hate that lane thing .. freaked me out when it started trying to steer me back … I can switch it off though.

Also gave me a fright when I swerved slightly to avoid a pothole and the dash blew up in lights saying ‘emergency steering activated’ 😳

It’s not about that. The indication tells the car’s management system that you’re knowing leaving the markers of the lane you’re in. Same if you swerve too near the hedge or whatever. It doesn’t activate at below ?20 mph)
It cannot be disabled in newer cars (I have a 24 plate VW) but in my old 66 plate Astra I could.
It is annoying at first but after a while you get to see the benefits.

Is this where Brits start being glad they aren’t in the EU?

At last, a brexit benefit!

Love all the nanny state comments, from a country which depends on a dangerous and defunct health service as if it is a religion. Meanwhile, in other counties with cameras and ID cards, we take responsibility for choosing healthcare providers that are best for us and accepting our resonsibilities as a part of society. There's no nanny state like the UK, so much so you dont even realise how the rest of the world live 🤣

I'm all in favour of it.

It wakes you up if you fall asleep, it brings your attention back to the road if you're looking in the wrong direction for too long, it stops you scrolling your phone...

And while you might never do any of those things, there are plenty of people on the road who do and this technology in other people's cars might save your life.

My car beeps if another vehicle is too close. I'm a good driver, this happens very infrequently. however, it takes me by surprise every time so just when I need to be concentrating and adjusting to the road conditions, instead I'm distracted by a random beep trying to work out what's going on and why it's warning me.

They build different cars for different markets all the time. EU cars are right hand drive so it’s very easy to only include this feature in those. Cheaper too.

Yep yep yep

Car manufacturers don’t seem to have grasped the fact that all the beeping and screeching and automatic emergency braking when it spots someone on the pavement 12 feet away is actually much more distracting and dangerous than just, you know, driving.

Yes I have one of those.

it’s ridiculously bad at detecting speed limits.

I turned from a car park onto an A road and it was still saying the speed limit was 5mph on a sixty road!

The thing is, yes at the moment it's not in the UK and at the moment it's not going to do much other than alert the driver to things such as falling asleep, you also don't need to buy a new car however, eventually yes it will be in the UK, it will be in all cars, you won't have a choice when you need to replace your old car in the future and it will be used to issue fines or such for looking away from the road for a second etc. some Amazon vans already have this technology and they are using it to monitor their drivers and if they look away from the road 3 times in an hour ) or something like that ) they can be fired. It's a massive invasion and driving isn't always as simple as AI makes it out to be.

Be good if tech could stop unlicensed, banned and stoned/drunk drivers from driving.

I don't care tbh. I had a bloke behind me last week who barely looked up from his phone whilst driving and it was horrifying. I was tempted to stop my car and get out and tell him off! I spent the whole time being distracted by him because I was worried he'd drive up my arse so then there's two of us distracted. It would only ever be looked at if there was accident. I'm pretty sure you can turn lane assist off too and just read the road signs as normal rather than relying on what the car tells you (I don't like the speed thing either because I worry it will make people lax).

What car do you have, please? So I know what not to buy!

Right hand drive is purely a question of mechanics going one way instead of the other. The management system, the brains behind modern cars, just get wired whichever way. The RHD market is minuscule compared to LDH as the majority drive that way. Somethings just have to be accepted.

Well they already do to some extent- left hand vs right hand drive...?

But are still having to buy goods that are EU compliant. Like tethered bottle caps. And goodness knows what that is less visible.

It is / should be more nuanced than that... as someone who has done fairly serious advanced training to Roadcraft (the police driving manual) - you are taught to think in a more complex way than just 'always indicate'.

e.g. road positioning is important - an example might be:

• a bus is stopped in the road to collect passengers / a skip is left in the road / some obstacle you need to go around...
• traditional driving instruction is that you indicate to move out and around the obstacle...
• however, if there happens to be a side road nearby - that indicating might be mis-read as turning into the side road and a car waiting there could choose to come out - bang - collision.

instead, by making the decision earlier and moving out towards the centre of the road, you gain a number of benefits:

• you get a better view past the obstacle
• your road positioning shows that you are aiming to go past the obstacle
• you give a better view to cars behind that a obstacle is in the road
• you don't give a false impression that you might be turning right etc. it is clear that you will continue to progress in a straight line

in that situation - no indication = better than indication.

and there are others - the main difference being that road positioning is a stronger tool than an indicator - road positioning, or where you place your car is much easier to use to predict your path as a pedestrian / other road user, than an indicator which could mean many things including that you forgot to turn it off.

On a motorway - if you move out gradually and far enough back so that the car you plan to pass could still move out in front of you, then you don't need to indicate - you are not yet in a threat position, so what you do is not affecting them - but the positioning of your car has made very clear to them that you intend to pass...

Equally, returning to the left having overtaken, why do you need to indicate? you are travelling faster than the person you have passed so what you do will not affect them - therefore you do not need to indicate...

ultimately indication is there so that you can show someone that your planned move might affect them / their decision. Ideally in driving, you drive to not affect others... so the times when you do not need to / should not indicate are perhaps more common than some expect...

back to the original point though - one of the first responses got it right - simply don't buy a new car - buy older and mend when necessary - more environmentally friendly (biggest environmental impact is manufacture / recycling of cars) - no nanny state features - etc. we drive three cars: 8 yrs old (with very little nanny state stuff) / 14 yrs old / 32 years old.

For any longer journey I just turn all that driver assist stuff off.

Yes the insane beeping because there's a weed in my path is rather annoying 😂

I've got a 25 plate and it can be turned off so it must be manufacturer dependent?

But no one should turn out of a junction until you are turning in and if you have more than two lanes how does the person in lane 1 looking to pull out and overtake know you're planning on pulling back into lane 2 from lane 3 if you don't indicate?

I can disable it at the touch of a button in 25 plate VW...need to do it every time I start the car though. I switch lane assist and speed warnings off every time. It still frequently warns me that I'm going to crash into nothing though...pain in the arse!

Also team only indicate when you need to. The number of people who think sticking an indicator on means they can just pull in front of you causing you to brake harshly is extremely annoying. They obviously have no concept of speed differences/distance.

The point is that there are a lot of varied driver abilities out there - correct someone shouldn't turn into your lane until you have turned into their road - but they do because they read your intentions and an indicator at that point can give false impressions of your intentions...

ref. lanes - I gave a simple example - if more complex, you might need to indicate - if you are going faster than the others you might still not need to as your movements will not affect theirs...

And if you have just overtaken a car in lane 2 - then that car means that the one in lane 1 is unlikely to move out anyway as they will hit the car you have just overtaken! 😃

the point is - driving on our roads is not black and white - and there are many occasions where not indicating, but moving may be valid - so the automated nanny on the car will get it wrong...

e.g. looking to overtake on a country road - the first step of a good overtake is to move across horizontally for vision - to check the road ahead is clear - at that point you have not decided to overtake or not / there is no indicator use yet, however you will cross the white dashed line to gain that vision - and the nanny system may object to a perfectly normal and correct move