On Sept. 28, California Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill calling for speed limit warning systems on all new cars in California. While this might sound like a win for agency and responsibility of free will, it’s merely the first battle. See, the end game of this speed warning mission is a whole lot bigger than California.
I’ve previously written about this piece of proposed legislation, SB-961, so if you missed that coverage, here’s the gist of it: It was a proposal to mandate audible speed limit alerts for any new vehicle sold in California from 2032 onwards. The suggested implementation was a bit flawed, with the bill calling for “an integrated vehicle system that uses, at minimum, the GPS location of the vehicle compared with a database of posted speed limits,” but a passive audible alert system sounds like the least invasive way of doing something like this.
However, the vetoing of this bill isn’t a case of striking back against safety nannies because everyone would just turn them off anyway. Instead, it’s a case of waiting to see what the federal government does first. In a veto message, Governor Newsom wrote:
While I appreciate the intent to improve traffic safety, this bill presents several challenges. Federal law, as implemented by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), already regulates vehicle safety standards, and adding California-specific requirements would create a patchwork of regulations that undermines this longstanding federal framework. NHTSA is also actively evaluating intelligent speed assistance systems, and imposing state-level mandates at this time risks disrupting these ongoing federal assessments.
Indeed, if NTSB get its way, every new car in America could one day come with alerts or soft governors tied into some system of gleaning the speed limit on a given stretch of road. Now, there might be a few problems with this, so let’s start with the downsides of drawing speed limit information from map data.
The first is that every communication network generation eventually sunsets, so if a vehicle doesn’t have access to the latest speed limit data, its Intelligent Speed Assistance program might not be accurate. Think of all the cars caught in the sunsetting of 3G and you’ll see where the issue lies. It also might not be accurate in reduced-speed work zones without constant, vigilant updating of map data, which would require coordinating resources on a vast scale.
Alright, what about drawing speed limit information from camera-based traffic sign alert systems using hardware already built into vehicles? Well, that sounds more current, and is likely a better idea, but only if the Intelligent Speed Assistance system is one of speed limit warning rather than speed limitation. Let’s say that a sign indicating a limit change is obscured by, say, a tree, and the camera in the windshield doesn’t pick it up. This would only be mildly annoying with a passive warning system, but if a power-capping speed limiter is in place and a speed limit increase isn’t detected, it could lead to potentially hairy speed differentials between vehicles with speed limit limiters and surrounding traffic without. After all, it takes decades for technology to be fully implemented in the U.S. light vehicle fleet, so even if Intelligent Speed Assistance were implemented on all new cars, it wouldn’t be everywhere for a while.
Of course, there is another question surrounding Intelligent Speed Assistance — if it is implemented, what if people just turn it off because it’s annoying? For years, we’ve been seeing people turning off or figuring out workarounds for features like lane centering and automatic start-stop, so why would Intelligent Speed Assistance be any different?
Obviously, there may be some insurance ramifications to this, but not everyone will be conscious of that. Driving slightly over the speed limit, to some extent, is a culturally acceptable thing in America, so changing those perceptions will be an uphill battle. Still, the war on speed isn’t over yet, so we’ll just have to wait and see whether, over the next few years, driving in America changes forever.
Gavin Newsom image credit: State of California
Support our mission of championing car culture by becoming an Official Autopian Member.
-
California’s Proposed Speed Limit Warning System Law Has One Big Problem
-
California Is About To Vote To Ban Sales Of New Gas-Powered Cars By 2035: Report
-
The EU Totally Caved On Its Internal Combustion Ban. Here’s Why That Could Be A Good Thing For The Environment
-
You Only Need 50 HP To Get By Even In Modern Traffic
Got a hot tip? Send it to us here. Or check out the stories on our homepage.
I agree with a bunch of the criticisms in the article and other comments. I also see two additional issues for such a system if implemented in my state.
1 – my state has an implied 55MPH speed limit on unposted roads (of which there are lots). Transitions from low speed zones to unmarked 55MPH are often marked poorly (sometimes not at all). This would probably confuse a camera-based system (it occasionally confuses humans, too).
2 – my state has codified an exemption for people driving less than 10MPH over the posted limit. 64 in a 55 zone is technically legal, which has lead to numerous interesting legal situations. A hard limiter as described in this article would appear to fall afoul of this legal quirk. Which would probably lead to another round of law suits like speed cameras did.
Speed cameras have been through several legal challenges in my state (10MPH exemption, among others). If I understand the current legal situation the cameras are legally allowed, and they do send out tickets, but the tickets are not traffic citations, and are not legally enforceable (payment is voluntary). This has lead to a local elected official lamenting that less than half of automated tickets get paid, and the local government is missing out on revenue!
The legal situation is changing next month, with the state requiring municipalities to request permits before cameras may be used. But it appears the tickets will still be unenforceable. My takeaway is that our state government doesn’t like Automated Traffic Enforcement. I imagine they wouldn’t like mandatory Automated Vehicle Control, either.
Place a piece of tape over the camera.
i propose that the cost of implementing this type of system would be better spent on driver education and period RE-licensing.
Had a Volvo rental recently that had a speed alert, it would go off just 1 mph over. It was annoying as you’re not going to brake going down a slight hill just for 1-2 mph over. I also found that the speed limit shown on the dash didn’t always correlate with the actual speed limit signs.
Where did you get that picture? High school yearbook?
I’d prefer this solution: I had a rental Audi a few years ago in Denmark and for the first couple days I thought the cruise control was totally broken until I realized it was a driver-set speed governor. First push set it to your current speed and then moving the stalk up or down adjusted by 5kph (number shown on the dash). Once set, you just drove as you liked except the car wouldn’t accelerate past the set speed. I found it super helpful since I’m calibrated in mph, the highway limit default was 130 in Germany (with delightful exceptions), 120 in Denmark, and 110 in Sweden, and my desired number of interactions with foreign law enforcement is 0.
Amazing that anyone is OK with more regulation in the first place. Those suits can fuck the fuck off.
I feel a bit sad for people living in Cali. Your “boss” is a tyrant.
In a democracy your “boss” is the majority. California voters’ experiences with pollution produced the popular support for CARB. Other states did not have the same problem, and hence did not apply the same regulations.
Well, they DO have the same problem, just not to the same degree, so they did nothing and now the problem is worse.
Houston smog makes LA look like Fargo.
The Stink of Liberty
“Houston smog makes LA look like Fargo.”
Smog makes people go out and buy wood chippers?
I’m not gonna pretend to know the general mindset of Cali (other than being there many times and the friends I have there), but it seems “majority” is doing some heavy lifting.
Exactly why the USA is a republic and not a democracy. This country was set up to protect from the Tyranny of the Majority and it’s surprising how many people forget that.
If you think that limitations on pollution (a cost imposed by a minority on everyone) are the same as capital-T tyranny, I’m not sure we can have a conversation.
Nice straw man
It’s literally the topic at hand
Ok, you gotta explain this take, lol..:
(a cost imposed by a minority on everyone)
I mean, speed limits are already the law.
Exactly.
I don’t know if you’ve driven in the US in the last two years, but current law enforcement isn’t accomplishing the goal of speed limits (having safe driving conditions). While this proposal seems pretty hamhanded, making it so people have a harder time going 80 in a 55 (i.e. not flagrantly break the EXISTING law) doesn’t seem tyrannical to me.
Isn’t is more of tides level everything out? But, if you as a grown adult, want others to tell you what “smart” is…have at you.
Me? I’ll handle not mowing down children on my own.
I’m glad you are such a conscientious driver that stricter enforcement of speed limits wouldn’t affect your behavior. As somebody that walks his kids to school every day, I can tell you that you are in the minority.
And that is up to you and your community to correct. Just because your experience is a problem, doesn’t mean others see the same.
I don’t speed in your school zone. It’s YOUR school zone. Fix it locally.
Ah yes the typical “California bad” comment seen on every automotive space.
So you acknowledge there is a squeaky wheel? Hmm…
I mean, gosh, just take it from anyone who’s driven a car that puts the speed limit on the dash: sometimes those get it WILDLY wrong. Like, 30 on a big road, 50 on a neighborhood cow path kind of wrong.
I laugh when Google tells me the limit is 65 on a poorly maintained double-track county road that I can barely do 25 on with my adventure bike.
Gosh, yeah. It’s so frequently inaccurate that it’s unreal.
There’s a trail near me that is somehow logged as a highway on Google with a speed limit of 55mph, but aside from maybe someone in a rock buggy with 40″+ tires, 5-8mph is about as fast as one can go with 33″+ tires without causing vehicle damage.
THIS. The tech isn’t ready. I have a camera system in a couple of cars. It often misses signs, so when I get off the freeway and onto residential streets it claims the limit is 55. Since I don’t use the curse on city streets that’s not a problem. But sometimes on the freeway at 70 MPH the camera sees a speed limit sign for the weigh station lane off to the right (25 MPH) and starts heavy braking, and I have to disengage quickly before I get rear-ended.
As for using GOS – well, I have CarPlay on one stretch of road claim it’s 40, but several cars claim it’s 55 (there’s no sign). The cars are correct, it’s 55. But going by the bad CarPlay database I’d get warned (or throttled on speed if the Feds get their way).
What’s really stupid about NHTSA is they have spent forever coming up with stupid, arcane headlight rules (instead of just using the ones in the EU that seem to work just fine), blocking us from getting the far superior abilities of EU headlights. But this stuff they want to ram down our throats before the tech is even reliable.
The most frequent error is the car thinks speed limit is 25mph just because there’s a 25mph sign for a school zone. The system doesn’t know it is applicable only at certain times.
Expect to see speed limit signs covered in Paintball splatter soon.
I would actually support this in VERY LIMITED situation. For example, school zones. They don’t move, and the school schedule is public knowledge, so it should be easy to set these up for time and date.
If you go less than 5mph over the limit, you get the warning chime. 5-10 mph over the limit and you are automatically issued a ticket.
If you’re going over 10mph over the limit in a school zone, your car is bricked. It shuts down right there, and an inflatable beacon is deployed encouraging everyone in the area to hurl bricks at your car. And you lose your license.
And if you pass a school bus that is stopped to pick up/drop off kids, it’s bricked, and a load of bricks is dropped. The kids are encouraged to exit the bus and pelt your car with you trapped inside.
I might start using those stickers which go over the laptop cameras and put them on the windshield to cover the car’s camera
Newest car I’ve ever owned is a 2006. I drove a 2022 car for the first time recently and was amazed at all the annoying nanny features it had. It was constantly beeping at me and the engine quit every time I stopped. I’d say I’ll never buy a car with a speed limit or even a speed warning, but I honestly don’t want any of this stuff. If I want to drift off the road and hit a tree, that’s my right damnit, and I want to do it in peaceful silence.
I have noticed that on Google Maps, many of the speed limits are missing or do not match the signs on the roads. You can go a long way in rural areas without even seeing a speed limit sign.
I know that in the urban area I live in, the highways are full of people going 20+ over the limit, which is dangerous.
Should we go back to making slow malaise-era crap cans that cannot go fast? (no)
Any time I drive more then 15 minutes somewhere the speed shown from the system is different than posted at least once. I don’t know who maintains the system, it’s just there in the car. But it is often wrong. And this is not in rural areas at all.
Probably a case of “we’ll make laws and the state will figure out how (NOT) to make them work”.
I have one set in our 3 series at 8mph over the limit, but it’s just there for me as a warning if I’m not paying attention. Also, that speedometer seems off from the factory by 2-3 mph, so I’m really only doing 5 over at that point. In Detroit that isn’t even keeping up with traffic in the slow lane.
No need for this to be mandated. It won’t do anything but annoy people.
I have one set in my car for a few mph below the VA ‘go to jail’ limit of 80 mph. I rarely hit it, save on 70-mph interstates whilst I’m still being passed by traffic. Similarly, it’s just a “hey, be aware” thing as my car is so smooth compared to my prior that I still haven’t developed a feel for my car’s speed, especially since I replaced the engine mounts.
To quote the governor’s veto statement:
“…adding California-specific requirements would create a patchwork of regulations that undermines this longstanding federal framework.”
Isn’t that exactly what CARB is?
shhhhhhhhh
Yes, but two wrongs don’t make a right. Let’s not give them any ideas.
A couple of months ago I rented a Skoda in Italy that had this – it would chime a couple of times when it recognized you were over the speed limit. It was annoying as hell.
So the downsides are that your car will be obsolete quicker, you can only safely travel in ‘well-infrastructured’ areas, and a massive bureaucracy will be needed to support and enforce it all.
Those are all actually upsides, not downsides, for the kind of vampires who dream this crap up.
job creation!