Assemblyman Robert Carroll, D-New York City, speaks during a news conference earlier this year.

A member of the state Assembly wants all new cars sold within the next five years in New York to come with intelligent speed assistance systems.

Robert Carroll, D-New York City, recently introduced legislation (A10712) that would require the systems, which he says are common in new vehicles sold in Europe, to be required on vehicles sold in New York as a way to reduce traffic accidents. Carroll’s bill defines an intelligent speed assistance system as a device that alerts drivers by an audio and visual signal when they drive more than 10 miles per hour over the speed limit. Carroll does include an exemption for emergency vehicles.

“The relationship between speeding and increased traffic fatalities is well established. A report from the New York State Comptroller found that of the 1,175 motor vehicle fatalities in 2022, one-third involved speeding. Intelligent speed assistance (“ISA“) technology has been recommended by the National Transportation Safety Board to be standard equipment in all new vehicles and to be effective in reducing speeding by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration,” Carroll wrote.

California lawmakers approved legislation earlier this year to require the systems be installed in new cars there by 2030. While the original version of the legislation would have required active speed assistance, which would have physically stopped vehicles from speeding. Over the summer the legislation was amended to require passive speed assistance, which warns drivers when they are speeding but doesn’t force them to slow down.

While the goal is to reduce traffic deaths in California, the legislation would likely impact all new car sales in the U.S. because California’s auto market is so large that car makers would likely just make all of their vehicles comply with the state’s law similar to the way the state’s emissions requirements ended up becoming the industry standard.

California’s bill uses GPS technology to compare a vehicle’s speed with a dataset of posted speed limits. Once the car is at least 10 mph over the speed limit, the system would emit “a brief, one-time visual and audio signal to alert the driver.” It’s not known if the technology will include all local roads or if the system will update when local governments change speed limits.

The European Union will require all new cars sold there to have the technology this year, according to the Associated Press, though drivers will be able to turn it off. Last year, according to the AP, the National Transportation Safety Board recommended federal regulators require all new cars to alert drivers when speeding. Their recommendation came after a crash in January 2022 when a man with a history of speeding violations was traveling more than 100 miles per hour when he ran a red light and hit a minivan, killing himself and eight other people.

Legislation introduced last year in the the New York state Legislature would require speed limiters similar to ignition interlock devices for drivers who accumulate 11 or more points on their driver’s licenses in a 12-month period. The legislation (A7979/S.7621) did not progress out of committee in either the state Senate or Assembly last year.

The legislators propose adding a new section to the state Vehicle and Traffic Law requiring a speed limiter on such drivers’ vehicles that caps a vehicle’s speed at 5 miles per hour higher than the speed limit. The state Motor Vehicles commissioner would be charged with creating a list of approved speed limiter devices. The state would create an evaluation period that requires drivers to show safe driving practices while they have the speed limited and courts could extend the use of the speed limiter by up to three years if drivers are deemed to be driving unsafely.