RICHMOND, Va. — Starting July 1, Virginia judges will have a new option that would allow people convicted of certain driving offenses to keep their license, but require the installation of technology that would limit their ability to drive above the speed limit.
Passed by lawmakers in 2025, the law creates the Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA) Program and drivers who are required to enroll in the program will have an ISA device installed on their car that would use GPS to keep a car from going above the speed limit on whatever road it is on.
"There are some opportunities if a vehicle does need to pass another vehicle, where there can be a few seconds worth where they're allowed to get up to a higher speed, but then the limiter kicks back in after a time period," explained AAA Club Alliance spokesperson Morgan Dean about the technology. "But by and large, this is an opportunity to help try and change behaviors of people who have a real issue with speeding on Virginia's roadways."
The language said that courts may require drivers to sign up for the ISA program for anyone convicted of reckless driving (either driving too fast for highway and traffic conditions or going 20MPH above the posted speed limit or over 85MPH regardless of the posted limit) instead of suspending their driver's license. The ISA technology would be installed on all cars owned or registered to the driver and they would not be allowed to operate other vehicles. Enrollment can last between 60 days to six months.
The law said the courts shall (as opposed to may) require enrollment if someone was convicted of reckless driving and was going over 100MPH.
It also allows for enrollment in the ISA program for people convicted four times in violation of racing or exhibition driving (with the enrollment time set for five years) or for people who have accumulated 18 demerit points against their license within 12 months (with the enrollment time set for nine months).
"It's really exciting because Virginia is the first state in the country to enact one of these laws," said Jessica Cicchino, Senior VP of Behavior & Infrastructure Research at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. "We've been seeing this kind of technology being used on fleets and being used in other countries to limit driver speeds and we've seen that it's been really successful. When it's on a driver's car, they're not going to be speeding and it's something that can be especially helpful for the most dangerous drivers out there."
The Virginia State Police said when it comes to the number of times their troopers encounter people speeding on state roads, they issued 31,622 summons in 2025, wrote 2,227 warnings, and arrested 611 for a total of 34,460 encounters (the total was 40,266 in 2024 with a 37,324-2,286-656 split and 39,981 in 2023, with a 37,041-2,381-559 split).
Safety advocates hope the new program will help bring those numbers, and the number of speed-related deaths in Virginia, down.
"In 2024, the last bit of full data that we have, just looking at speed-related deaths on Virginia roads, of the 918 total traffic deaths we saw in the Commonwealth, 410 of them, or almost half…involved speed," said Dean. "So, that shows you just how dangerous speed is on our roads."
The law also said that if anyone who has the ISA device installed in their car and tries to tamper with or bypass it can be charged with a Class 1 Misdemeanor.
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