California Bill Would Bring European-Style Speed Limiter Tech To American Roads, And It's A Good Idea

It doesn’t take much more than half a brain to understand that we have a serious problem with speed on U.S. roadways. It takes slightly more grey matter than that to understand that a lot of this problem is caused by a refusal of many American drivers to take responsibility for their actions and the danger caused by it. A steadily increasing number of people are dying on the road, and speed is certainly a factor. A new bill proposed by California senator Scott Wiener would see an electronic speed cap added to cars from 2027 onward, activated by GPS and posted signage, allowing users to exceed the limit by no more than 10 miles per hour. If enacted, it would unequivocally save lives, maybe even yours.

Forget Autonomy, Drivers Still Want Control

Since July of 2022 all new vehicles sold in the European Union have been mandated to incorporate Intelligent Speed Assistance, which takes into account posted speed limits, and artificially limits the car to that limit. I used this system when I tested Volkswagen’s new ID.7 in France, and it was spectacular. With the adaptive cruise control on, the car would automatically slow to the limit when driving into a small town’s reduced speed zone, then resume at the higher highway speed limit once out of town. Speed traps are no longer a worry when driving a car with ISA. Plus you are safer, and the other drivers and pedestrians and cyclists around you are, too! It’s great, and should be implemented everywhere.

Like the proposed California system, the European ISA is easily temporarily defeated by the driver. Unlike the California proposal, ISA doesn’t build in a 10 mph buffer. It’s a hard cap spot on the speed limit, as limits are supposed to be limits, not suggestions. This is where I think California’s proposal actually falls short. There isn’t any reason why you should need to exceed the posted limit on any public road. We all do it to varying degrees, and we’ll readily admit to breaking that law, but why do we accept that as normal?

“The alarming surge in road deaths is unbearable and demands an urgent response,” offered Wiener. “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.”

Anecdotes aren’t data, but the number of times I’ve set the cruise control at five over the limit on the highway and been freight-trained by a dually hauling a fifth wheel trailer at twenty over the limit is too high to count. One time is too many. I admittedly drive more highway miles than the average American, and I see far too much of this shit, and I’m ready for it to come to an end. Speeding will hopefully one day be seen much like smoking as barbaric, risky, dangerous, and disgusting.