David Ho

Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill that required new cars to beep at drivers if they exceed the speed limit. šŸ¤¬

The law would have impacted all new cars in the U.S. since the California market is so large that manufacturers would just make all their vehicles comply.

https://apnews.com/article/california-speed-alert-cars-bill-veto-588605f3980c952c894756da6579bf3d

California governor vetoes bill requiring speeding alerts in new cars

Californiaā€™s governor has vetoed a bill that would have required all new cars to beep at drivers when they speed. California would have been the first U.S. state to have such requirements. The measure was aimed at reducing traffic deaths. But Gov. Gavin Newsom said Saturday the proposal would create "a patchwork of regulations." The measure would have required that new cars starting in 2030 alert drivers if they exceed the speed limit by at least 10 mph. It would have likely impacted all new car sales in the U.S. due to Californiaā€™s massive auto market.

AP News
Sep 29, 2024 at 7:15amWeb
Show threadCoach Pāį¹‡ini Ā®Sep 29, 2024

@davidho
I dunno how I feel about this degree of #ForgivingDesign, which is the pattern for our built environment post WWII (h/t #StrongTowns šŸ«”).

Ultimately, the challenge of human attention in moving motor vehicles is that itā€™s become monotonous.

Iā€™m skeptical of mandating #ComplianceCulture this way. Maybe my #libertarian streak is showing šŸ¤·šŸ»ā€ā™‚ļø

Show threadEl DuvelleSep 29, 2024

@davidho good! that "feature" is so annoying. I recently drove a car that was doing that and it was extremely distracting, and being distracted while you're driving is dangerous. There are circumstances where going slightly above the set speed limit is the safest choice, for example if you're passing someone or avoiding an obstacle and these are exactly the moments where you don't want to be distracted. Plus you can't count on the car to know what the speed limit is, at some point it thought it was 20mph when it was actually higher and kept beeping at me until I found out how to deactivate the whole thing.

This applies to any other automated "action" that the car takes instead of the driver, like pushing you back when it thinks you're crossing the midline - super dangerous. All of these "features" should remain optional.

Show threadSnowSep 29, 2024
@elduvelle @davidho There is probably a group of people who supported this legislation hoping they could drive around with the throttle pinned, letting the car adjust the speed for them while they browse Facebook on their phone.
Show threadšŸ˜€šŸš²Sep 29, 2024
@elduvelle @davidho that sounds super annoying, it should just silently file a speeding ticket for you. There is no traffic law that allows you to drive faster than the posted speed. It's simple, but drivers like to make excuses for why it's complicated.
Show threadEl DuvelleSep 29, 2024

@enobacon one could maybe agree to that if the car software always knew about the real speed limit and could accurately measure its own speed. But it doesn't (as is nicely explained in another answer). And again, in some situations you might have to go past the speed limit for safety reasons. The current state of cars and roads is just not good enough for this to be useful.

@davidho

Show threadšŸ˜€šŸš²Sep 29, 2024
@elduvelle @davidho there is no exemption in any speeding regulation about "safety reasons". And if the car is wrong, you can take it to court.
Show threadjjjSep 29, 2024
@davidho This is mandated for new cars in the EU now and it is generally hated and car reviewers discuss how easy or hard it is to turn off (it is mandated to be on every time you start the car and ā€œnot too easyā€ to turn off). In EU, the car is required to tell you that you are going too fast when you exceed the speed limit by 1 km/h. Most (all?) cars do this by beeping at the driver. Most (or all?) cars go by the carā€™s speedometer, though, meaning it will beep below the actual speed limit. So, some reasons people hate this are: the car often doesnā€™t know what the speed limit is: it is common the car knows speed limit by reading the signs via its camera. Picking it from road signs doesnā€™t work reliably, driving under a bridge might pick up a different speed limit (from the bridge?), or it might picking up a speed limit from neighbouring road. You could imagine getting it from GPS and maps but Google regularly shows the wrong speed limit where I am and sometimes they are temporary. Or the GPS might be slightly inaccurate, thinking youā€™re on a different road. Also, setting the cruise control at the speed limit doesnā€™t keep it exactly there when driving in slightly hilly areas; 1 km/h above and you get beeped at. And on top of that, the beeping is often very annoying, it is not always clear *why* the car beeps at a given time (there are many other different safety features) and this distracts from driving, thus making it less safe. It seems that it is possible to implement this safety feature in a less annoying way, though still informative. But not being excessively annoying is not mandated. The CA idea of having it beep at 10 mph above the speed limit sounds very good to me and solves some of the above mentioned gripes, but not all.
Show threadlgsp is movingSep 29, 2024

@davidho

Related: petiton to Audi to have the signal

- be either acoustic or visual, not both
- not necessary to set it every time the car is activated

I love this!

https://www.change.org/p/modify-speed-limit-warning-isa-system-in-the-audi-q4-e-tron

Firma la petizione

Modify Speed Limit Warning (ISA) System in the Audi Q4 e-tron

Change.org
Show threadRoadskater, Ph.D.Sep 29, 2024

@davidho
I can't fault him much on this. This is the CA legi passing a bill asking car designers (and by extension Silicon Valley) to save us from so many other horrid things. Instead they should be requiring that the state DOT design and require safer street designs, that drivers should be regularly retested, etc.

But DOTs are only interested in throughput and not safety. And god forbid people have to retake a test every 5-8 years to renew their DL ā€” that would be worse than raising taxes.

Show threadToni AittoniemiSep 29, 2024
@davidho Maybe beep inside the cabin, or make some other sound that is not a beep. But Iā€™m not sure if this wouldnā€™t just make everyone ignore the beep in the long run, which could be even more dangerous. šŸ¤”
Show threadCelloMom On CarsSep 29, 2024

@davidho

Speed kills. If you want to decarbonise by encouraging walking and biking, you need to curb the lethal potential of the wrecking balls going down your streets.

I have got my fingers on some radar speed data in my town: on a street marked 25 mph ab out 80% of drivers go over that, and a few go 55 mph (!).

Show threadlegraLeGraSep 29, 2024

@davidho @jf_718

Gavin Newsome explained ā€” he doesnā€™t want to discourage car manufacturers from supporting him ā€¦

šŸ™„ ^^ sarcasm

Show threadscott fSep 29, 2024
@davidho If thereā€™s gonna be this much resistance to just making the cars beep, the next version should go all the way to actual speed limiters. No more half-measures.
Show threadlord pthenq1Oct 2, 2024
@davidho
Thanks God!
It would have killed the car industry!