In California, a new rule might make your car beep if you speed. A bill wants to make it mandatory for all new cars sold in California by 2032 to beep when they go 10 miles per hour over the speed limit. This bill has passed the first vote in the Senate. By 2029, half of new cars in California should have this beeping feature.
These beeps would remind drivers to slow down when they go too fast. But, emergency vehicles won’t have to follow this rule. This rule comes after a suggestion from the National Transportation Safety Board to use a system called intelligence speed assistance technology. This system would use GPS, cameras in cars, and a list of speed limits to stop speeding.
Some people might not like this idea, but it could save lives. Senator Scott Wiener, who made the bill, says research shows it works. “Research has shown that this does have an impact in getting people to slow down, particularly since some people don’t realize how fast their car is going.” Volvo already limits the top speed of its new cars to 112 mph.
Speeding causes a lot of deaths on the road. In 2021, 12,000 people died in speed-related crashes in the US. In California, about 35% of all traffic deaths happen because of speeding. Senator Brian Dahle doesn’t like the bill. He says sometimes people need to speed in an emergency. “It’s just a nanny state that we’re causing here,” he said.
This technology isn’t new. It’s already in cars sold in Europe. Soon, all new cars sold in the European Union will have this feature. If this bill becomes law, car companies will have to add this feature to their cars. We’ll have to see if other states follow California’s lead, like they did with the 2035 ban on gas-powered cars.
