In 2021, the head of the General Directorate of Traffic (DGT), Pere Navarro, and the Ministry of the Interior, led by Fernando Grande Marlaska, signed a royal decree that modified the regulations and established the obligation to use a V-16 light signal to replace emergency triangles. At that time, they argued that the change aimed to provide greater safety to the occupants of a broken-down vehicle by preventing them from having to exit the vehicle to indicate the incident, thus reducing the possibility of suffering an accident due to being run over.

The number of deaths from being run over on Spanish roads during Easter has been the highest in the last ten years, despite the entry into force of the mandatory V-16 luminous signaling system. In fact, the obligation to acquire this luminous warning system for emergencies or breakdowns connected to the DGT, which shows the location of cars with incidents in real time, was based on a supposed improvement in safety for vehicle occupants in these situations, but the first major travel campaign of the year, coinciding with the Easter holidays, has demonstrated the ineffectiveness of this system in combating being run over and associated mortality.From AUGC (Unified Association of the Civil Guard), the majority association of agents of la Benemérita, they point directly to the ineffectiveness of these devices and state that "false expectations" had been created around the implementation of the luminous and geolocated V-16 signal. Carlos Cantero, head of the traffic area of this association of civil guards, assures that the death data reveal that this system has proven to be "ineffective" in reducing the mortality figures due to being run over. It is still relevant that this luminous warning system was patented by two former Civil Guard officers and that a business of more than 1,200 million euros was generated. For this reason, Facua denounced the DGT for promoting a massive fraud with the obligation of this device. To conclude, the head of traffic of the AUGC denounces that the DGT “has not listened to the opinion of the agents who are on the street” and that “prevention must be improved” to reduce the unacceptable increase in mortality associated with the new V-16 device.

Two new official requirements scheduled for January 1, 2026, have generated controversy: Verifactu, the Tax Agency's verifiable invoicing protocol that generates QR codes, and the connected V16 beacons that the DGT (Spanish Directorate General of Traffic) wants to impose on drivers. Despite being technically very different, they have in common that they have reignited citizens' suspicions about a supposed desire by governments to monitor the actions and movements of the population.