Published: Thursday, May 23, 2024
California drivers will receive a visible and audible alert whenever they exceed a speed limit by 10 mph if new safety laws are passed. DepositPhotos
Speeding is dangerous for anyone who has spent time on the busy US highways. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, America’s top traffic regulator in 2021, around one out of ten car accidents reported to police were caused by speeding. The American need for speed is also increasing. The NHTSA reports that speeding-related deaths increased by 8% from 2020 to 2021. California lawmakers believe that they have the solution to the rise in speeding accidents. It involves internet-connected cars making noises towards their drivers.
SB961, a new traffic bill being considered in California, would require all passenger cars, commercial trucks and buses to be equipped with “passive intelligent assistance” systems capable of sending an audible or visual alert whenever it detects that a driver is exceeding the posted speed limit by 10 mph. The bill was passed by the California State Senate with a vote of 22-13. Supporters say that this GPS-enabled system on board could be a key factor in reducing speed-related accidents and deaths. SB961 is only applicable to California-made cars, but the sheer number of vehicles that are sold in this state may encourage car manufacturers to apply the standard to all vehicles.
Scott Wiener, California state senator and bill’s author, said that the evidence was clear. The rising levels of dangerous speeds are putting all Californians at risk. By taking precautionary steps to improve safety we can save many lives.
How do in-car speed detectors work exactly?
California’s bill, if passed into law would require auto manufacturers who want to sell or produce vehicles in the state invest in Speed Assistance Technology. This technology, which is also known as “Intelligent speed adaptation” (ISA), uses GPS data from the drivers’ cars and compares it to a digitally mapped database of speed limits. The system will need to send a “brief visual and audio message” if it determines that a driver is driving 10 mph above the posted speed limit. Uncertainty surrounds the exact sound and appearance of this signal. Some modern cars already use similar databases to display digital speed limits on the dashboard.
The carmakers would have to determine and verify the speed limits of a particular area. This could be difficult in remote or local areas, where speed limit data may not always be available. The bill stipulates that in cases where there are conflicting reports about the speed limit of an area, the proposed ISA must use the highest limit. By 2029, the ISA would be required for 50% of all passenger cars, trucks and buses manufactured or sold in California. The requirement would then increase to 100% by 2032. Emergency service vehicles are one group that the ISA requirement will not apply to. These cars are often required to go over speed limits in order to save lives and carry out police duties.
In the US, ISA systems are relatively new. But they’re not in other countries. In 2019, the European Union adopted legislation requiring all new vehicles sold within the region to be equipped with ISA. This legislation will officially take effect in the second half of this year. According to the European Transport Safety Council (a non-profit that advocates traffic safety reform), ISA technology could reduce collisions in the region and deaths by up to 30% and 20%, respectively. These statistics may be a bit more palatable in the US where speeding is estimated to have been a factor in 29% of all car accidents.
Wiener continued, “California is experiencing a shocking spike in traffic fatalities, with thousands dying on our roads each year, including drivers, cyclists and pedestrians.” These deaths could have been prevented, but they are happening because policy decisions to tolerate dangerous road conditions.
There are still questions about the speed of data access
The critics of California’s law are concerned that its 10 mph threshold could unfairly penalize drivers who need to temporarily exceed posted speed limits during emergency situations. The California bill’s proposed system, as it is currently written, only sends a warning to drivers who are speeding. However, ISA systems could theoretically go a step beyond and prevent drivers pushing their cars past certain speed limits. The system would then function as an adaptive speed governor.
In a recent interview, Republican California State Senator Brian Dahle told KTVU that the state was becoming a “nanny state”.
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There is no clear answer as to how long auto manufacturers will be required by law to store data about speeding warnings, or with whom they can share this information. In recent months, reports by The Mozilla Foundation, among others, have shown how car manufacturers are increasingly relying on sensors, cameras and other onboard technology to collect minute information about their customers’ driving behaviors. Some of the data collected is shared with third parties or insurance companies. These driving behaviors have been cited by insurance companies as a reason for raising premiums. The long-term trends of speeding violations can also contribute to the overall risk profile of a driver.
Also, it’s unclear if data collected by auto manufacturers on speeding violations could be shared with the law enforcement. In a recent Congressional report by US Senators Ron Wyden & Ed Markey, it was revealed that at least eight car manufacturers regularly provide law enforcement with driver location data when they receive a subpoena. There’s not much that can be done to prevent law enforcement from using data that could show instances of speeding.
If this is the case, [SB 961] “This is a simple way to alert drivers. It doesn’t raise any red flags. But I am worried about a future where cars will be required to track our movements for the police,” Albert Fox Cahn, Executive Director of Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, told Popular Science. The police already have a lot of information from the black boxes in our cars and telemetrics. We need to ensure that this does not become another way for them to track where we go.