The world we live in is one where our devices have more and more information about the world we live in. That goes double for the world we drive in: you’ve probably noticed that your car and smartphone frequently know the speed limit for the road you’re traveling on. Those same devices can also keep track of your own speed — which means that they also know when you’re speeding.
That prompts a big question: will automakers or regulators end up doing something bigger with this information? Earlier this year, the European Union mandated Intelligent Speed Assist systems on all new cars sold in the E.U. If you’ve wondered if something similar might come to the U.S., though, the answer is no — or at least not yet. California governor Gavin Newsom recently declined to sign a bill that would implement something similar on new cars sold in the state.
As Autoweek‘s Jay Ramey reported, the E.U.’s measures for speed regulation ranged from an audio alert when cars exceeded the speed limit to a system that would automatically reduce the vehicle’s speed. The proposed California measure, reports Ian James of the Los Angeles Times, would have required cars sold after 2030 to warn drivers with audio and video whenever they went more than 10 miles per hour over the speed limit.
In announcing his decision, Newsom argued that speed assist systems were more of a federal matter. “NHTSA is also actively evaluating intelligent speed assistance systems, and imposing state-level mandates at this time risks disrupting these ongoing federal assessments,” he wrote.
This stands as a disappointment for road safety advocates. Writing in the New York Times, Soumya Karlamangla noted that the bill had been intended to lead to changes on a national level, with the presumption that automakers would implement these features on a wider scale if required in California. Still, there is the matter of the NHTSA’s research into the matter — though how this policy might fare on a national level, especially in an election year, is a matter of debate on its own.
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