Your car could soon warn you when you accelerate past the speed limit.
ABC News reports that California lawmakers have “passed a bill that would require vehicles to warn drivers who are speeding in an effort to reduce traffic deaths.”
Related: Dead Pedal – Federal Regulators Want Cars That Can’t Speed
*DING*
The bill would require a brief, one-time visual and audio signal to alert the driver each time the vehicle’s speed is more than 10 mph over the speed limit. The mandate would begin with the 2030 model year.
The measure could still fail. It requires the signature of California’s governor, Gavin Newsome (D), who hasn’t said whether he plans to sign it. Politico notes that Newsome “said in January that he was broadly sensitive to issues like the speed-limiting devices that could be weaponized by Republicans in an election year.”
Should he sign the bill, the move might spread to other states. Road safety measures often begin in California, home to nearly 12% of the U.S. population, before spreading to other states.
This Bill May Not Mean Much
In this case, the requirement may not make much practical difference.
Many 2024 model-year cars already have the technology. “The bill builds off a similar requirement that went into effect in the European Union in July,” according to ABC News.
Automakers now sell many models on multiple continents, leading them to include safety technology to meet the strictest standard, even in vehicles shipped to markets that don’t mandate it.
As a KBB editor, I test-drive many new cars every year. Today’s cars are often so full of warning chimes that they become background noise, and drivers barely notice them.
A recent AAA study found that most drivers engage in behaviors they know are dangerous. A reminder might make some rein in behaviors, but this one threatens to get lost in the constant flood of information today’s cars offer drivers.
