The Department for Transport is funding a £1.9m research project to test car speed control technology employing GPS and ISA (intelligent speed adaptation) technology.

A system has been developed by the University of Leeds and road research organisation Mira which automatically keeps vehicles within the speed limit.

Eighty drivers will try out the technology in specially-adapted Skodas over the next two years.

Their behaviour will be monitored to see how their driving changes when they have to keep within the speed limit.

"At the moment this is just a research project," says a DfT spokeswoman. "The purpose is to look at behaviour patterns and whether it alters."

The department says an earlier project concluded that an intelligent speed limiter could reduce fatal accidents by 19 per cent, and injuries by 10 per cent.