Intelligent Speed Adaptation (ISA) is one of the new approaches to road safety and is advertised by the European Transport Safety Council as a potential solution to some of the problems with speeding, in particular the problems associated with young drivers. One of the benefits of such systems is the capacity to set speed levels automatically to correspond with the speed limits indicated on the roads. Global Positioning Systems (GPS), allied to digital speed limit maps based on the national road network, have allowed ISA technology to continuously update the speed capacity of the car to the limit on the road being driven upon.

ISA does not just lead to a reduction of average speeds but it can also reduce the speed variances between cars. There are three main types of ISA, known as informative, supportive and intervening. Informative (also known as Advisory) gives the driver feedback in the form of a visual or an audio signal.

Supportive (also called Warning) increases the upward pressure on the accelerator.

Perhaps the most effective ISA against those wishing to exceed the speed limit is the intervening ISA, which prevents speeding by reducing fuel injection.

So called "speed inhibitors" are among the options being considered by transport minister Martin Cullen as part of a range of measures being examined to curb fatal road accidents among young drivers in particular.

Estimates by the Institute for Transport Studies at the University of Leeds show that certain types of ISA deployment, when used on a mandatory basis and combined with a dynamic speed limit regime, has the potential to reduce overall injury accidents by 36%, fatal and serious accidents by 48% and fatal accidents by 59%.