The arrival of the new V16 devices will allow the Traffic Executive to know our position in real time in the event of an accident or mishap.
Big Brother has arrived in the automotive world. Although satellite navigation as well as the different remote updates that exist in vehicles together with the emergency call or WiFi hotspots almost already allowed manufacturers to know where we were at all times with our vehicle, now this is going to be extended to the General Directorate of Traffic (DGT). Yes, from 2026 and as established in 1030/2022 of December 20, the Mobility Executive will know at all times where you are going to be.
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A Royal Decree that was approved yesterday by the Council of Ministers and which modifies the previous 159/2021, of March 16, for the regulation of assistance services on public roads. Arriving here you will surely ask yourself: “okay, but how will they know where I am? Very easy. Those responsible are the new V-16 lights that, as you well know, will be mandatory as of January 1, 2026, effectively having a connection system so that all vehicles are geolocated remotelysending every 100 seconds the location of the car in what has been a great step forward to reach the DGT 3.0.
But surely you have understood, and if not, I will clarify it for you, so that the DGT knows your position you will have to activate the V16 signal and “it will stop sending once the deactivation information has been sent”. In other words, the procedure is easy: when a vehicle suffers a mishap, the beacon will send the coordinates with its location to the cloud, which will automatically replicate them to all cars that have the connectivity function, while said information will also be visible on the information panels for those cars that do not have this function.
The light turns on automatically when attached magnetically.
Here you have to be cautious and think that not all V16 devices will be valid. For this reason, the DGT will launch a list of the brands and models of V16 devices that comply with all the provisions in the regulatory norm and therefore are valid to signal an accident. It will do so through the website http://www.dgt.es/v16, and although it is not active at the moment, it is expected that it will be updated as the months go by. The modification of these devices is due to the use of technological developments to facilitate care in an emergency. For this reason, the functionality of these lights is the pre-signaling of danger, that is, they are intended exclusively for the visibility of the injured vehicle and the consequent geolocation to the General Directorate of Traffic of its location.