Safety on public roads
A road is not a circuit, and the app does not pretend otherwise.
Sterza routes are on public roads with other people on them. Everything here is enforced in the product rather than promised in prose. Last updated 27 Aug 2026.
The position
Sterza is built for people who enjoy driving well, on roads that other people are also using. A road is not a circuit, and the app does not pretend otherwise: where we cannot be sure a road is closed or derestricted, the product assumes it is not.
That assumption is the reason for most of what follows. None of it is sentiment — each point is enforced in the product, and any of it can be checked against what the app actually does.
The four safety points
You accept these before you can publish a road or record a run. The acceptance is versioned: if the wording materially changes, everyone is asked again rather than being held to something they never read.
Oncoming traffic, cyclists, walkers, animals and farm vehicles are all normal. Nothing in the app grants you the road.
The reference lap is capped to it. A time that could only be set above it is not a time we will show.
A braking point is computed from the road and your car, not from what is around the corner right now. What you can see always wins.
Nothing asks you to read, tap or decide while the car is moving. Cues arrive as sound and one colour.
The speed cap
The reference lap — the line the coaching is computed against — is capped to the road’s posted limit. An unsurveyed road stays capped: unknown does not mean unlimited. Only a circuit, or a section explicitly recorded as derestricted, is uncapped.
This is why a Sterza reference lap on a public road is not the fastest lap physically possible. It is the fastest lap available to a driver staying within the limit, which is a different and deliberately less exciting thing.
Where competition is switched off
On a road that is not derestricted there is no outright leaderboard. You are compared only against your own previous laps, and no record is painted on the map for anyone to chase.
No outright record is shown on an open public road.
No notification is ever sent to tell you your time has been beaten. A leaderboard is passive; a notification is a summons.
Ghost cars and gap comparisons run against your own history, not against a stranger, unless the road is a circuit or derestricted.
Reporting a road
Any road in Sterza can be reported — as unsafe, as private land, or as a school zone — and it can be hidden while it is looked at. A road does not need to be yours to report, and reporting does not require an account in good standing.
Reports go to safety@sterza.app or through the road’s own menu in the app. We aim to act on a report of an unsafe road within [REVIEW WINDOW].
Circuits and organised events
On a circuit, the caps come off — a closed track is the one place where outright competition is the point. Events run by a verified organiser carry that mark so it is clear who is responsible for the session. Sterza is not the organiser, does not run the event, and does not verify anyone’s insurance or scrutineering.
What Sterza is not
Sterza is a tool for reflection and for driving better; it is not a safety system. It does not see the road, does not know about traffic, weather, surface or a closure, and cannot intervene. GPS is accurate to a few metres at best and can be wrong.
Some of what this app enables is restricted in certain jurisdictions. Nothing here is legal advice, and driving within the law remains yours.
Contact
Safety questions and reports: safety@sterza.app. How the data behind all of this is handled is set out in the privacy policy.