Overview of mandatory car equipment 2024, drivers will pay up to CZK 4,950 extra

The European Union continues to fight to reduce and even eliminate fatal accidents on our roads. To this end, it has taken a number of steps and changes in regulations, one of which is the introduction of new mandatory equipment. They will appear in cars as early as next year, and the list is really long. And understandably, no long list of extras is free. And it won’t be cheap in this case either, or it won’t be cheap either. And who will pay? Drivers will pay. Let’s look at the equipment together.

New assistants and new lights

The EU’s efforts to protect our safety are certainly commendable, after all, most of the assistance systems and other elements of active or passive safety have their origin in the decisions of the European Commission. However, the truth also remains that at least some of them (and it’s not just the notorious start-stop system for turning off the engine after stopping) were not met with too much enthusiasm by drivers. To put it very mildly. Many of us are the first to look for “where it can be turned off” when buying a new car. And if we have to turn it off before every ride.

And often we have to. Understand, I am absolutely not against security systems. On the contrary. In short, sometimes with some of the “officially defined” elements, the question creeps into the mind, whether on their development and subsequent debugging was enough time with the manufacturers, before it was decided to serially assemble them into cars. Having a “lane assistant” in the car, which does not always accurately distinguish longitudinal lines, but can (at a completely unexpected moment) very noticeably “pull the steering wheel” is not something that would excite one.

A short time for debugging reduces the functionality of the systems – and their security

And maybe it doesn’t even sometimes contribute to greater security, rather the opposite. In short, it is a different approach than when a security element is purchased from the manufacturer himself, who has enough time (and money) to debug it and in the finale present something that works absolutely perfectly from the first minute and what will become an automatic part of the next generation of cars. Example? Three-point safety belts from Volvo, airbags and ABS from Mercedes, at one time Procon-ten from Audi. And that’s just a very brief list.

Back to the European Union. According to a report from Brussels, the new mandatory equipment will be fitted to all new cars from 7 July 2024. It will not need to be retrofitted to existing models (we were very relieved), but whoever buys a new car after this date will have to pay dearly for it. In short, manufacturers will be forced to install a lot more electronics in cars, and something tells us they won’t want to do it charitably. This means that even the cheapest and most basic models in the European Union will be much more expensive.

Is five thousand crowns too much or too little? A question of perspective

According to the first reports from Brussels, the price should rise by at least 200 euros, which is less than five thousand crowns. Is it too much or too little? It depends from which point of view we look at the whole thing. Of course, five thousand is a ridiculous amount for possibly saving life or health. On the contrary, it is quite a lot of money for an additional complication in the production of the car, a greater complication in servicing and another not very functional system on board. Especially if we try to turn off these systems.

As we can see, two main items stand out from the list of mandatory equipment: speed assistant and black box. They are strongly connected. The first will emit sounds when the driver exceeds the speed limit. The other then records (and saves, it must be added) every movement the driver makes in his car. The combination of both should contribute to reducing the accident rate. And if an accident already occurs, for an easier analysis of the reasons why it happened.

How do you see it? Do new safety features in vehicles make sense to you? Let us know in the discussion below the article, thank you!