Brake has long campaigned for Britain to adopt the package of features set out in the Vehicle General Safety Regulation, which was introduced in the EU in 2022 and in Northern Ireland two years later.
This new law reflects a major campaign success for Brake.
Read more below about the changes that are coming, and why these measures are important to protect road users and save lives.
What is the new legislation?
The new legislation will require 18 vehicle safety technology features to be fitted as standard, in line with regulations that have been in place in Northern Ireland and the EU since 2022. The technologies are:
- Advanced distraction warning (ADW)
- Blind spot information system (BSIS)
- Drowsiness and attention warning (DAW)
- Direct vision (DIV)
- Emergency braking for cyclists (EBC)
- Emergency braking for pedestrians (EBP)
- Emergency braking for vehicles (EBV)
- Event data recorder (EDR)
- Emergency lane keeping system (ELKS)
- Emergency stop signal (ESS)
- Frontal full-width impact (FFI)
- Frontal off-set impact (FOI)
- Intelligent speed assistance (ISA)
- Moving off information system (MOIS)
- Pole side impact (PSI)
- Pedestrian windscreen impact (PWI)
- Reversing motion awareness (RMA)
- Tyre pressure monitoring system (TPMS)
The change was announced in response to the Government’s consultation on mandatory vehicle safety technology, which was opened in January 2026 alongside publication of its Road Safety Strategy, aimed at reducing deaths and serious injuries on Britain’s roads by 65% by 2035.
The consultation sought views on whether manufacturers that sell vehicles in Britain should be required to equip them with a suite of safety technologies, such as intelligent speed assistance, automated emergency braking (AEB), and advanced distraction warning.
Dev's Law
The new legislation will be known as Dev’s Law in memory of 8-year-old Dev Naran who died in a motorway collision in May 2018. Dev’s Mum, Meera Naran MBE, has lobbied since her son’s death for all vehicles to be fitted with automated emergency braking (AEB).
This in-vehicle feature monitors the road ahead and automatically slows down the vehicle if the driver fails to respond to a collision threat. Meera believes it could have saved Dev’s life had it been fitted to the lorry that collided with the stationary car Dev was in.
This is such an important milestone in road safety and reflects an enormous amount of hard work and leadership, and a commitment to improving road safety through evidence-based, preventative life-saving technologies.
Meera Naran MBE, Dev's mum and road safety campaigner
Why is Brake campaigning for all new vehicles to have life-saving technology fitted as standard
There is no good reason for any new vehicle to be built without the latest-generation, life-saving vehicle safety technology outlined in the General Safety Regulations.
In the UK, we helped shape these regulations which have now been adopted in the EU and Northern Ireland [1].
Now it’s time for us to raise the standard in Britain and make all new vehicles as safe as they can be, with mandatory safety features that are known to prevent deaths and reduce serious injuries, such as intelligent speed assistance, automated emergency braking and lane-keeping assistance.
Key facts
- In 2024, 1,671 people were killed on UK roads and almost 29,000 were seriously injured. Aside from during the pandemic, there has been no significant reduction in the number of people killed and injured on our roads in the last decade.
- Human error is estimated to be at least one of the causes in most crashes.
- Advanced vehicle technology can play a significant role in improving road safety and prevent a great number of families and communities from needless suffering.
In July 2022, the European Union introduced a new Vehicle General Safety Regulation [2], making certain vehicle safety features mandatory for new vehicles. The new safety measures will help protect passengers, pedestrians and cyclists, and although not mandatory, many features are available in vehicles sold in the UK.
It has been estimated that these safety measures could prevent more than 1,700 deaths and 15,000 serious injuries over 16 years, if the full package of measures was fully implemented in Britain, and save up to £7 billion in health costs [3,4].
Research by Brake in 2025 found that 35% of drivers surveyed have turned off at least one safety feature in their car such as lane-keeping assistance and reversing cameras or sensors [5].
In September 2023, Brake surveyed 2,033* car drivers about vehicle safety technology in their cars. We found a worrying lack of knowledge about how the latest technology can help prevent crashes.
Click here to read the survey reportIn July 2024, led by Brake, a consensus of 50+ organisations and individuals from across the road safety community wrote to the Transport Secretary urging them to prioritise vehicle safety
Click here to read the full reportIn March 2025, Brake surveyed 2,016 car drivers about their knowledge of vehicle safety technology. We found that people want themselves and the people they share roads with to be safe.
Click here to read the full survey reportIn October 2025, Brake and more than 45 organisations wrote again to the Secretary of State for Transport, urging them to adopt the latest vehicle General Safety Regulation updates
Click here to read the letter
