This guide explains everything surrounding New Vehicle General Safety Regulation 2 (GSR2), a set of rules designed to improve road safety mandated by the European Union (EU) for all new cars today.
This makes Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) such as lane keeping assistance, driver attention warning and event data recorders mandatory, along with several other key features.
The UK government is currently considering adopting these EU rules, but most new cars sold here already come fitted with this technology. We’ll pinpoint the new car features that are now fitted as standard – whether you want them or not.
What is GSR2 and why is it important?
GSR2 is a set of regulations that were first finalised by the EU back in 2019. The rules, introduced in phases, have applied to all new cars launched after 6th July 2022. They were first written into EU law in 2019 under Regulation (EU) 2019/2144.
The specific objective of GSR2 is to improve road safety. The EU has estimated that the technology could save more than 25,000 lives and avoid at least 140,000 serious injuries by 2038.
This is expected to greatly help the EU meet its ‘Vision Zero’ target: zero road deaths and serious injures by 2050.
Basically, GSR2 aims to reduce the impact of human error on motorists, pedestrians and cyclists using the latest assistance technology.
The regulations mark a major change to a process called ‘type approval’. This is a where a car manufacturer must demonstrate that a new vehicle meets minimum standards - primarily safety and environmental standards such as the amount of pollution the car produces.
Since the 2022 date, all new cars being launched to the market have had to be type approved to this standard.
However, the second phase, which began in July 2024, meant all new cars on sale – regardless of when they were first type approved - must include these new features.
What car safety features are mandated by GSR2?
Technology now fitted as standard to all new cars sold within the EU includes:
| Safety/driver assist feature | Explainer |
|---|---|
| Advanced emergency braking | An extension of existing regulation, the latest autonomous emergency braking (AEB) systems must be able to detect pedestrians and cyclists and react accordingly |
| Alcohol interlock provision | All cars will have equipment in place to allow a breathalyser alcolock to be installed which, when the law allows, could prevent it being started if a driver is above a set alcohol limit. This could prevent repeat offenders from drink-driving |
| Driver drowsiness and attention warning | Cameras that monitor the driver’s eye movements and alertness, with a warning system to stop the driver falling asleep at the wheel or highlight distraction. This system also tells drivers when to consider taking a break |
| Emergency lane keeping system | Going beyond lane departure warning, these systems must be able to keep a car within its lane by applying corrective steering inputs where necessary |
| Event data recorder | Like a ‘black box’ on an aircraft, an event data recorder records and stores data on what the car and driver are doing before, during and after a collision |
| Intelligent speed assistance | Already commonly available, intelligent speed assistance uses camera or GPS data to warn drivers exceeding the speed limit. Some systems can reduce the vehicle’s speed to the posted limit, but can be overridden by the driver |
| Reversing detection | Cameras and/or sensors alert drivers of hazards when reversing. Many can also apply the brakes when necessary to avoid a collision |
Importantly, many of these features cannot be permanently disabled and must be activated each time the vehicle is started. The driver can temporarily disable tech such as lane-keeping assistance, but it will always reactivate at the start of each journey.
Is the UK following EU safety regulations?
Currently the UK is not officially aligned with the EU’s GSR2 rules, with no law mandating that cars sold in Britain must meet these requirements following the decision to leave the European Union.
However, as many cars sold in the UK feature the same software as those sold throughout the EU, most new cars already have many of these systems installed today. This avoids the extra cost and complexity of engineering cars specifically for UK laws.
Northern Ireland has already adopted GSR2 regulations for its right-hand drive cars due to its alignment agreement with the Republic of Ireland, which is an EU member state.
Earlier this year, when asked if the UK would adopt the same rules, Lord Hendy, Minister of State at the Department for Transport, told the House of Lords “The government have commissioned analysis to determine which of those technologies are right for Great Britain.”
More recently, Lord Hendy stated in Parliament that the Government “takes an explicit presumption in favour of alignment” with EU car safety regulations, and that the Government is “considering options for requiring the fitment of the safety technologies mandated by the EU’s General Safety Regulation.”
Will older cars need to meet GSR2?
Put simply: no. The GSR2 regulations only apply to newly launched cars after July 2022, and existing cars built after July 2024.
No changes are required to cars built before these dates. Although laws can change, most experts agree that it would be prohibitively expensive and difficult to retrofit such technologies to the millions of older cars on UK roads.
