California Bill Would Require Cars to Beep When the Driver Is Speeding

The alert would sound when the driver exceeds the speed limit by more than 10 mph. Lawmakers say that in Europe, the devices make roads safer.

Traffic on a Los Angeles freeway during the evening rush hour in Alhambra, Calif., on April 12, 2023. Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images

With a third of all traffic deaths in California involving speeding drivers, new rules could be just ahead after the Senate passed a bill requiring that new cars beep when their drivers exceed the speed limit by more than 10 miles per hour.

Senate Bill 961, authored by Sen. Scott Wiener, would phase in the rules by 2032. In a press release this month, Mr. Wiener cited a 2023 report from the California Office of Traffic Safety that shows roughly one-third of all deaths due to traffic collisions from 2017 to 2021 were associated with speeding.