Rejoice, speeding drivers! The new 2015 Hyundai Genesis, which goes on sale around the world this year, will soon have the ability to automatically brake for speed cameras. The car will have a built-in map of speed cameras and average speed cameras, and then use a combination of GPS and its fancy Automatic Emergency Braking technology to brake if you’re still going over the speed limit when you reach the camera. While this feature is probably legal, it does appear to go against the spirit of speed cameras; after all, if you can just keep your foot down, and rely on the car to automatically brake for speed cameras, that’s hardly very safe, right?
Hyundai’s new speed trap avoidance tech seems to be a late addition to the 2015 Genesis. When we reviewed the car back in April — and awarded it the ExtremeTech Editors’ Choice award for midsize sedans no less – there was no mention of the clever Automatic Emergency Braking being used to hoodwink speed cameras. Speaking to the Australian website Drive, Hyundai says the new speed camera tech won’t be available at launch, but instead will be added later.
A speed camera, like you might find in the UK
Functionally the tech is very simple — and it makes me wonder why no other car maker has implemented it before now. Basically, the 2015 Genesis is loaded up with a big list of speed camera locations. When you come within 800 meters (half a mile) of a speed camera (measured via GPS), the car will show you the speed limit and beep if you’re going too fast. If you’re still breaking the speed limit when you reach the camera, the car’s Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB) tech will kick in, ensuring you don’t get a ticket. It isn’t entirely clear where Hyundai is getting its speed camera location data from, but it’s probably SCDB (a crowdsourced speed camera database) or something similar.
Using AEB — a road safety feature that prevents collisions with pedestrians and other vehicles — to dodge speed traps seems a little bit counterintuitive. If the tech actually works as Hyundai describes, you’ll basically be able to barrel along at any speed you like, and then have the car forcibly slow you down just before the speed camera. Presumably you could keep your foot on the gas the entire time, and except for a brief second or two of whiplash as you pass the camera you wouldn’t notice a thing. Watch the video below; AEB is pretty awesome.Depending on your point of view, Hyundai’s speed camera avoidance tech is either the greatest driving invention ever (and a fantastic way of thumbing your nose at The Man’s speed ticket racket) — or a disgusting abuse of technology.
It’s worth pointing out that similar tech already exists — there are Android and iOS apps that will beep at you when a speed camera is close — and that, strictly speaking, it probably isn’t illegal. If Hyundai’s system actively sensed speed traps (radar, lidar, etc.) then it might be a different story — but even then, radar scanners like the Valentine One and Escort Passport Max are legal in most US states, the UK, and plenty of other countries. If your car can automatically brake for fixed speed cameras, why shouldn’t it be able to automatically brake for mobile speed traps or highway patrol?
How would you feel if, alternatively, GPS and automatic braking were instead used toensure that you never break the speed limit?
Clearly, there’s no simple answer here. Any technology that can be used to save pedestrians or drowsy drivers can also be used in a variety of other ways. As car tech grows in complexity and power, I guarantee that we’re going to see lots and lots of questionable usage scenarios. After all, if Hyundai hadn’t mooted the idea of automatic speed camera braking, then how long do you think it would’ve been before another car maker, or even a DIY car hacker, thought to use GPS and automatic braking in such a way? It’s not exactly rocket science.
Excitingly — at least from my point of view as a tech nerd — all of this advanced car tech means we might begin to see some DIY hacks that do some truly weird and wonderful things. With adaptive cruise control,blind spot detection, lane keep assist, and automatic parallel parking… shouldn’t it be possible to write some software that lets your car automatically dive between traffic and jump between lanes, like in an action movie? Why shouldn’t the next S-Class Mercedes include a “defensive driving” button that gets you, and your billionaire human cargo, out of harm’s way as quickly as possible?
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