Big brother? California bill to require speed limit alarms in cars heads to governor

The California legislature passed a bill to require speed limit detectors and alarms to be installed in new vehicles made, sold or leased in a bid to use the state’s market size to regulate the national automobile industry.

If signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, SB 961 — by State Sen Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco — would require 2030 model year vehicles made, sold, or leased in California — except for two-wheelers and emergency vehicles — to elicit a visual and audio warning when a driver goes 10 miles per hour over the speed limit. The bill would not apply to vehicles that do not have a front facing camera or GPS.

“Traffic fatalities have risen alarmingly in California and across the nation, with speeding being a significant contributor to this public health crisis,” wrote Wiener in support of the bill.

Many newer cars already have forward-facing cameras for advanced safety systems. Approximately 90% of cars sold in the United States have tracking systems that track not just the car’s location at all times, but also where the car is when it shifts gears and when, and when and where car doors are opened or closed. Automakers then sell that data to data brokers.

While some speed-limit systems could use front-facing cameras to read speed limit signs, others could use GPS data to track the car’s location and pull up relevant speed limit information, notes the bill’s legislative analysis.

These systems are not mandated in the United States, but California is large enough that its mandate could change national auto standards.

“In effect, the author is attempting to leverage the purchasing power of the state to create a new standard for nationwide industry; something the state has done several times before on subjects like regulating toxic compounds in products or establishing minimum living conditions for animals used to produce food products,” wrote the State Senate in its final floor analysis of the bill for members to read.

The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, which represents car manufacturers, and the California New Car Dealers Association, note the EU is already requiring that vehicles have similar systems in 2024 — albeit with less stringent controls on how those systems must operate — and that the US is requiring the use of emergency-braking systems starting in 2029 that should reduce pedestrian traffic deaths.

Evidence suggests the rise in American traffic fatalities is attributable to both reduced traffic policing — that is, citations for behaviors such as dangerous driving — and the increased weight of American cars, as a heavier car exerts more force than lighter cars going at the same speed.

A New York Times analysis found that increases in traffic deaths are roughly inversely proportional to recent declines in traffic stops; first a moderate dip in 2014 in what the paper says is response to the 2014 Ferguson unrest, and a major collapse of about half starting in 2020 that has since continued.

An analysis from The Economist from August 31 found the fatality rate of colliding with a heavy pickup truck is seven times higher than that of colliding with a small, light economy car.