I’m getting old. Listening to radio 4 whilst driving on motorway journeys is becoming a bit of a habit, as usually it calms the nerves and relieves the boredom of what can be a tedious multi carriage way jaunt. That was until yesterday, when I found myself getting increasingly angry at an article on one of the mid afternoon informative programs.

The subject was innovations in electronics and the new innovation to improve driving standards. Targeted at the fleet driving market, although being trialled by other organisations on younger drivers, the box basically consists of a set of accelerometers, some memory and set of dash mounted LED’s.

The box monitors the acceleration, deceleration and cornering G. Depending on a defined set of parameters, the dash mounted LED’s display green for acceptable, amber for marginal and red for aggressive (their words not mine) driving. It then records the information and at the end of the journey shows via the LED’s the overall journey rating.

Fine but as we all know there is a hell of a lot more to safe driving than acceleration in what ever plain. The box is not advanced enough to measure distance from the vehicle in front, road speed and weather conditions. Whilst this was pointed out in the report, it was skimmed over by the company representative in a typical marketing fashion. Also, how does it take in to account the idiot that has just decided to pull out in front of you on a roundabout, or the old dear who is heading towards you the wrong way on the M40.

Clearly this product has not been tested in some of the more congested and aggressive driving areas within the UK, where driving with slightly more gusto than is defined acceptable, is necessary to achieve safe progress. Coincidentally, I pondered this thought as I accelerated on to the A13 East bound at the M25 junction, a notoriously difficult piece of road to merge on to.

What worries me is that this product will be adopted by companies and drivers penalised for normal every day driving. I would sincerely hope that any fleet management or driving standards company would see its short comings but its hopefully very cheap price will attract some. Also, what does the future hold for such a product? Incorporate the features I have outlined above, again we end up with a situation where big brother is most definitely watching us.

At the moment though, this is a dangerous half hearted attempt at a road safety product that should be ignored. I get the feeling though this isn’t the last we’ve seen of it.