The California state Senate has passed a bill that proposes all new cars sold in the state by 2032 have a feature that alerts drivers when they exceed the speed limit by at least 10 mph.
It’s a step down from the initial proposal to limit cars from exceeding 10 mph.
The big picture: Intelligent speed assistance (ISA) technology is not new; it can use GPS to compare a vehicle’s speed with posted speed limits, and once it detects the car is at least 10 mph over the speed limit, it would sound a brief, one-time visual and audio signal to alert the driver.
- The EU will require all new cars sold there to have ISA starting later this year, although drivers would be able to turn it off.
- The bill wouldn’t require California to maintain a list of posted speed limits but leave that to manufacturers. Therefore, maps might not include local roads or recent speed limit changes.
- The bill states if the system receives conflicting information about the speed limit, it must use the higher limit.
Zoom out: Despite the goal being reducing traffic deaths, the legislation would likely affect all new car sales in the US because California’s auto market is significant, so carmakers would likely produce vehicles that comply with the state’s law.
- The National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration estimates that 10% of all car crashes reported in the US to the police in 2021 were speed-related, including an 8% increase in speeding-related fatalities.
- Last year, the National Transportation Safety Board recommended federal regulators require all new cars to alert drivers when speeding following a crash that killed nine people in California.
