California governor vetoes bill requiring speeding alerts in new cars

Article content

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Gov. Gavin Newsom on Saturday vetoed a bill that would have required new cars to beep at drivers if they exceed the speed limit.

California would have become the first to require such systems for all new cars, trucks and buses sold in the state starting in 2030. The bill, aimed at reducing traffic deaths, would have required vehicles to beep to drivers when they exceed the speed limit by 2030. At least 10 mph (16 km/h).

Article content

The European Union has issued similar legislation to encourage drivers to slow down. California’s proposal would have provided exceptions for emergency vehicles, Motorcycles And motorized scooters.

In explaining his objection, Newsom said federal law already dictates vehicle safety standards and adding California-specific requirements would create a patchwork of regulations.

National Highway Traffic Safety “is also actively evaluating intelligent speed assistance systems, and imposing statewide mandates at this time threatens to derail these ongoing federal evaluations,” the Democratic governor said.

Opponents, including auto groups and the state Chamber of Commerce, said such regulations should be decided by the federal government, which earlier this year instituted new requirements for automatic emergency braking to reduce traffic deaths. Republican lawmakers also said the proposal could make cars more expensive and distract drivers.

This legislation would likely affect all new car sales in the United States, since the California market is so large that automakers will likely have to make all of their cars compliant.

Article content

Article content

California often throws this weight to influence national and even international policy. The state has set its own emissions standards for cars for decades, rules that more than a dozen other states have also adopted. When California announced it would eventually ban the sale of new gas-powered cars, major automakers quickly followed suit by announcing a phase-out of fossil fuel-powered vehicles.

Democratic state Sen. Scott Wiener, who sponsored the bill, called the veto a setback for street safety.

“California should have led this crisis as Wisconsin did when it passed its first seat belt mandate in 1961,” Weiner said in a statement. “Instead, this veto puts Californians at a completely unnecessary risk of death.”

Speed ​​alert technology, known as Intelligent Speed ​​Assist, uses GPS to compare a vehicle’s speed against a data set of posted limits. If the vehicle speed is at least 10 mph (16 km/h), the system sounds one brief, visual and audible alert.

The proposal would have required the state to maintain a list of published speed limits, and likely would not include those on local roads or recent changes in speed limits, leading to conflicts.

Article content

This technology has been used in the United States and Europe for years. From July, the European Union will require all new cars to have the technology, although drivers will be able to turn it off. At least 18 manufacturers, including Ford, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Nissan, have offered some form of speed limiters on some models sold in America, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that 10% of all car crashes reported to police in 2021 were speed-related. This was a particular problem in California, where 35% of traffic deaths were speed-related — the second-highest percentage in the country, according to a legislative analysis of the proposal.

Last year the NTSB recommended that federal regulators require all new cars to alert drivers when speeding. Their recommendation came after an accident in January 2022, when a man with a history of speeding tickets ran a red light at more than 100 mph (161 kilometers per hour) and crashed into a pickup truck, killing himself and eight other people.

Article content