Bill to Require Speed Limiters in California Cars Introduced In Senate

A bill to require all cars sold or made in California after 2027 to have devices limiting their top speed to only ten miles per hour above the speed limit was introduced in the Senate on Wednesday.

Senate Bill 961, authored by Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), would specifically require certain vehicles, commencing with the 2027 model year, to be equipped with an intelligent speed limiter that would limit the speed of the vehicle to 10 miles per hour over the speed limit. The bill would exempt emergency vehicles from this requirement and would authorize the Commissioner of the California Highway Patrol to authorize the disabling of the system on other vehicles.

In addition, the bill would also cover larger vehicle safety. SB 961 would also require certain trucks and trailers to also be equipped with side guards. The bill would also require the department to adopt rules and regulations requiring driver inspections of side guards and requiring the department to inspect side guards that have been involved in collisions.

Senator Wiener said on Wednesday that he wrote SB 961 for solely safety reasons, citing that cars going well over the speed limit are more likely to cause fatal accidents. A National Transportation Research Group report he mentioned found that California’s traffic fatalities went up by 22% from 2019 to 2022, while the U.S. average only went up by 19%. Another report, by the Office of Traffic Safety, found that 12 people a day were killed in California everyday because of car accidents, with many being at least partially caused by drivers going above the speed limit.

I’m introducing our SAFER California Streets legislative package to reduce traffic deaths & injuries.

SB 961 requires installed speed limiters in vehicles & side guards in trucks.

SB 960 requires CA to make state-owned streets safer for pedestrians, cyclists & bus riders.🧵

— Senator Scott Wiener (@Scott_Wiener) January 24, 2024

“It will require cars and trucks that are manufactured and sold in California to contain what we call speed governors or speed limiters that physically prevent the vehicle from travelling more than ten miles per hours above the speed limit,” said Wiener in a speech on Wednesday. “It will be illegal to go above the speed limit of course, but it will be physically impossible for a car to go more than ten miles per hour.”

“This technology exists already. It’s being rolled out in different forms in other countries and in other parts of the United States. There are cars being manufactured right now where you have the option of a speed limiter.  This is not some new creation we’re creating for this bill. It exists now and we need to make in Universal in California and hopefully the entire country. We know that the National Transportation Safety Board has recommended moving forward with this technology in cars nationally but that has not happened and we need to lead in California.”

“We have seen far too many people being seriously injured and dying on our streets. It’s not in any way an overreach, it’s common sense and long overdue. There is no reason why people should be driving 20, 30, 40 miles over the speed limit, that’s just dangerous. The alarming surge in road deaths is unbearable and demands an urgent response.”

“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.”

Opposition, Criticism against SB 961 grows

However, despite limited support coming from safety advocate groups on Wednesday, the bill received no support from any Senator or Assemblymember. In addition, opposition against the bill was immediate, with car makers, automotive enthusiasts, transportation experts, and others decrying the mandatory speed limiters.

“If he had just stopped short and said it would only be optional, like how the new regulations in Europe are, then he might have gotten more people on his side,” added Detroit-based automotive law advisor Herschel Williams to the Globe on Wednesday. “It can be, and is, sold as a better system of cruise control and has been shown to help elderly drivers and teen drivers drive more safely because of lower driving abilities. But no, he wants to make it mandatory, and that isn’t good for anyone.

“First of all, technology fails. These limiters are GPS based, or use cameras to read speed signs, or similar things. There are already incidents where people had limiters placed in their cars, and instead of complying, they ripped out road signs or cracked open the car and destroyed the device or the GPS unit. That only hurts public safety more. And you could also find yourself going super slow because the car had something go wrong. Well, the car behind you might not have that problem, and they could then cause an accident. Again, this has already happened too. Too much can go wrong with these limiters on. They don’t even read construction zones and other temporary places.

“Second, there are many times where people need that extra bit of speed. You may need to get away from something fast, or power some difficult terrain quickly at a high speed.

“Third, the economy would be hit hard. So many people would buy out of state to get around this law. Do you think Tesla will want to keep their plant here under those regulations? Probably not, so they are gone. The limiters aren’t cheap, so who do you think will have to pay for them? That’s right, the car buyer. Also, what will this mean for racing? Or for motorcycles. Ask anyone, and they’ll say that motorcycles zipping by are more of a safety risk. Are we going to put limiters on them too so that they don’t do that? Because it ain’t in the bill.”

“I can honestly keep going at how bone-headed a move this is. I understand the safety angle. truly. And the side guards on trucks? That is common sense and something most people can get behind. But you need to take the limiters out, or at least make them optional as safety equipment and not mandatory. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if Wiener only added the limiters as something to take out to get the side guards bit passed. Because these limiters, he will face a huge storm of opposition, including from his own party. Talking with 5 minutes from anyone in the car industry would have shown him just how idiotic this is.”

SB 961 is currently awaiting an assignment to Senate subcommittees to be heard later this year.