A California bill continues to move forward that is touted to help reduce traffic deaths by requiring speed warnings on new cars and trucks. The bill initially required all cars and trucks sold in the state to include speed-assistance technology.
‘Passive intelligent speed assistance’
The Assembly Appropriations Committee voted 9-4 on Wednesday, Aug. 7 to advance the first-in-the-nation mandate for speed-assistance technology. Senate lawmakers already approved the bill.
Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, said the new rule is needed to combat the more than 4,000 Californians who die each year on state roadways. He added that speed is a factor in about one-third of traffic fatalities.
Wiener has said the state has a “traffic safety crisis.”
The original Senate version of his bill, SB961, included a requirement for every car, truck and bus manufactured and sold in the state to be equipped with speed governors. The devices limit vehicle speed based on the speed limit for the roadway segment.
Wiener has highlighted a 2023 TRIP report that found traffic fatalities in California increased by 22% from 2019 to 2022. The figure compared to a 19% increase for the U.S. overall.
Multiple revisions along the way
Despite the statistics supporting his concern, he amended the bill in the Senate after hearing others apprehensions about using technology to prevent drivers from exceeding the posted speed by more than 10 mph for any reason.
The current version would instead require vehicles manufactured or sold in the state to be equipped with “passive intelligent speed assistance.”
SB961 defines the technology as “an integrated vehicle system that determines the speed limit of the roadway the vehicle is traveling on and utilizes a brief, one-time visual and audio signal to alert the driver each time the driver exceeds the speed limit by more than 10 mph.”
All new vehicles would be required to be equipped with the passive system by 2030.
Passenger vehicles that do not include either GPS or a front-facing camera would be exempt from the requirement to be equipped with passive intelligent speed assistance.
A requirement was removed from the bill that included trucks with a gross vehicle weight rating exceeding 8,500 pounds “for which a federal motor vehicle safety standard of any kind or character exists requiring either the passive or active control of speed.”
Todd Spencer, president of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, has said that driver training for all motor vehicles would go farther in improving highway safety.
SB961 next heads to the Assembly floor. If approved there, the bill would head back to the Senate for approval of Assembly changes before it could move to the governor’s desk. LL
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