A California state senator has introduced draft legislation that would compel car manufacturers to install limiters to stop new vehicles going 10 miles beyond the local speed limit.
On Wednesday, Scott Wiener, whose jurisdiction includes San Francisco, announced two bills that are intended to make California’s streets safer, and which also include provisions for improving roads for pedestrians and cyclists, as well as changes to how trucks are constructed to prevent other motorists being pulled underneath them.
But one element described as being the first of its kind in the U.S. was the requirement that new vehicles sold in the state from 2027 be fitted with “speed governors,” smart devices that automatically register the posted speed limit and prevent a driver from exceeding it by more than 10 miles an hour.
Miikka Skaffari/Getty Images
“The alarming surge in road deaths is unbearable and demands an urgent response,” Wiener said in a statement. “There is no reason for anyone to be going over 100 miles per hour on a public road, yet in 2020, California Highway Patrol issued over 3,000 tickets for just that offense.
“Preventing reckless speeding is a commonsense approach to prevent these utterly needless and heartbreaking crashes.”
His office added that the move had already been recommended by the National Transportation Safety Board, and that speed governors had already been installed in some American-made models.
Legislation to require new cars to be fitted with the devices from this year has already been implemented in the European Union and United Kingdom, and they are expected to become a global industry standard.
This is a developing story and will be updated with further details shortly.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.