Safe Speed Forums

No, there isn't now, but with respect to the point at hand we're getting hung up on the wrong aspect of the issue here and its not the important one. Supposing, in theory only, all technological problems were overcome and we had a system that genuinely could detect the difference between real tailgating and accidental transient closing of gaps.
There would still be an outcry as ordinary drivers got pinged for tailgating behaviour just as they now do for speeding behaviour.

I apologise for not reading T2006's post properly, but it does raise the issue of what is a correct definition of "tailgating"?

The two second rule, while imperfect, is the most readily accepted guide to driving too close to the vehicle in front, but it is obviously almost as flawed as the Highway Code braking distances.

The safe gap could be measured in terms of an absolute distance or a time separation - anything else is not easily measurable, and the accurate figure obviously depends not only on the velocity of the vehicles, but as with braking distances, also depends on the capability of the vehicles and the drivers.

The overall stopping distance of an 30 year old overloaded minibus with bald tyres, being driven by a someone having an argument over their hand held mobile in the drizzle on a road covered with diesel spill, is somewhat larger than the stopping distance of say an EVO IX FQ400 on a hot sunny day being driven by a properly trained Traffic Officer. Both the reaction times and braking distances are significantly different, but how would the smart system know?

Obviously the smart system would have done a number plate recognition and face recognition and know both what the vehicles are, and who the drivers are. This could also be done using the RFID tag hidden in the number plates and the drivers identity chip now compulsory embedded into the skull at birth (since they discovered that all alternative ID systems have serious flaws). They might even have interrogated the cars' new vehicle dynamics snooping device that tells them that the rear nearside tyre is 6psi low, the front left brake is only working at 86% of maximum efficiency and that the car is 10% over maximum loading weight because they have a stack of gold bars in the boot, but even the eye movement direction system cannot determine whether the brain is switched on behind the eyeball.

In short, no matter how advanced the systems get, there is no way that such as system could be enforceable unless there is a simple way for the driver to know whether they are flouting the new anti-tailgating regulations or not - something so simple that even Politicians and Chief Constables can understand it, so a very, very simple rule indeed is needed, and the two second rule is the best we have. Speed cameras work because there is an absolute "thing" to be measured, which can be easily worked out both by humans and machines. What is the equivalent for tailgating?