A new bill in California could change how fast people can drive to different places. Part of the SAFER California Streets bill, which was introduced into the state legislature on January 23, will require all cars sold in California starting in 2027 to have what the bill calls a “intelligent speed limiter system.”
As written in the bill, this kind of speed control system would use GPS technology to make it illegal to drive too fast. A system like this would use a car’s GPS to figure out what road it is on and compare that to a database of written speed limits to limit the car’s top speed to 10 miles per hour over the speed limit.
In the European Union, a similar system is already in place because all cars have to have Intelligent Speed Assistance technology as of July 2022. The European Commission says that ISA does not take control of the car itself. Instead, it warns the driver not to go over the speed limit by making it harder to press down on the pedal or by making a noise.
“The ISA system is required to work with the driver and not to restrict his/her possibility to act in any moment during driving,” states the Commission. “The driver is always in control and can easily override the ISA system.”
This part of the California bill says that the regulator “shall only be capable of being temporarily disabled by the driver of the vehicle,” but it doesn’t explain how that would work. It also says that emergency cars will not have to follow the rules.
Suggested: Sports bars across New York City getting ready for AFC Championship
The California senator says that the bill was created because of the rise in careless driving, pointing out that stopping people from speeding can save lives.
“The shocking rise in traffic deaths is intolerable and needs to be fixed right away,” Wiener said in a statement. People shouldn’t be going over 100 miles per hour on a public road, but the California Highway Patrol gave out over 3,000 tickets for that very reason in 2020. Stopping careless speeding is a sensible way to stop these completely pointless and sad accidents. The state senator doesn’t agree with the idea that the bill is an example of the government going too far.
“I don’t think it’s at all an overreach, and I don’t think most people would view it as an overreach, we have speed limits, I think most people support speed limits because people know that speed kills,” he told ABC’s Bay Area Partner.
Leave a Reply