All vehicles in Spain will have to carry geolocation emergency warning beacons from 2026

In the event of an accident or breakdown the devices, called V16 beacons, will send details of the vehicle’s location to the Directorate-General for Traffic’s DGT 3.0 Cloud every 100 seconds once activated, and the information can be picked up quickly by other connected vehicles.

Jorge Ordás, the deputy general manager of the DGT, is looking forward to the new measure coming into force because it will improve road safety and mobility.

“You won’t have to get out of your vehicle to set warning triangles out, you will be visible at a distance of one kilometre, your coordinates will be notified to the DGT and shared with other navigators, APPs and connected vehicles and these V16 beacons can by used by all vehicles, no matter how old they are,” he explained.

Nor will there be a fee for this connectivity, because “every beacon will come with the connectivity prepaid for at least 12 years”.