SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California could eventually join the European Union, requiring all fresh cars to warn drivers when they exceed the speed limit. It’s a proposal aimed at reducing road traffic deaths, which would likely impact drivers across the country if it became law.
The federal government sets safety standards for vehicles across the country, which is why most cars now beep if the driver is not wearing a seat belt. A bill in the California Legislature that passed its first vote in the state Senate on Tuesday went further, requiring all fresh cars sold in the state by 2032 to beep drivers when they exceed the speed limit by at least 16 miles per hour. .
“Research has shown that this has the effect of encouraging people to ponderous down, especially since some people do not realize how quick their car is going,” said state Sen. Scott Wiener, a Democrat from San Francisco and author of the bill.
The bill narrowly passed on Tuesday, indicating what a hard road it may face. Republican state Sen. Brian Dahle said he voted against the bill in part because he thinks people sometimes have to drive faster than the speed limit in an emergency.
“It’s just the nanny state we’re causing here,” he said.
While the goal is to reduce traffic fatalities, the legislation will likely impact all fresh car sales in the US. That’s because the California auto market is so huge that automakers will likely just make all of their vehicles compliant with state law.
California often throws pressure to influence national – and international – politics. California had its way emission standards for cars for decades, principles that have also been adopted by a dozen other countries. And when California announced it was finally going to do it ban the sale of fresh gas-powered carssoon, major automakers made their own announcements to phase out fossil fuel vehicles.
This technology, called Clever Speed Assist, uses GPS technology to compare a vehicle’s speed against a set of posted speed limit data. When the car exceeds the speed limit by 10 miles per hour or more, the system will emit a “miniature, one-off visual and audible signal to warn the driver.”
California would not require maintaining a list of posted speed limits. This was left to the producers. It is likely that these maps will not take into account local roads or recent changes to speed limits, which will cause conflicts.
The bill states that if the system receives conflicting information about the speed limit, it must apply the higher limit.
The technology is not fresh and has been used in Europe for years. Starting from the end of this year, European Union will require all fresh cars sold there to be equipped with the technology, although drivers will be able to turn it off.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that 10% of all car crashes reported to police in 2021 were related to speeding, which includes an 8% boost in speeding-related fatalities. This was particularly a problem in California, where 35% of traffic fatalities were related to speeding, the second highest rate in the nation, according to a legislative analysis of the proposal.
Last year National Transportation Safety Board recommended federal regulators require all fresh cars Warn drivers when they exceed the speed limit. Their recommendation came after failure in January 2022 when a man with a history of speeding violations was driving more than 100 miles per hour, ran a red featherlight and hit a minivan, killing himself and eight others.
The NTSB it has no powers and can only make recommendations.
