What’s in the bill?
Senate Bill S9528 is currently in committee, and if passed by law, it would mandate the use of advanced safety technology in new vehicles in the state.
According to the state’s health department, on average, three New Yorkers die every day due to a traffic-related crash. That’s why the purpose of the bill is to implement new technology in cars in the future to further help decrease that number.
To explain and clarify the terms of the bill, Sabastian Piedmont, Managing Partner of Tully Rinckey’s Syracuse office, spoke to FingerLakes1.com to debrief on the topic.
“Installing all these new electronic devices and safety devices on vehicles is going to likely cause vehicle prices to go up. Then starting in 2024, the consumer is going to be paying for that when they buy a new car or lease a new car,” said Piedmont.
What is a speed limiter?
According to Piedmont, a speed limiter would use something like GPS technology along with sign recognition to alert a person that they are speeding and pick it up based on location.
“It would be just an electronic device that would go in and it would basically log how quick you’re going and what the speed limit is,” said Piedmont.
“Some of the ways that it would be used as like a beep or a warning that you’re going too fast, then like a second warning maybe your vehicle automatically being slowed down.”
This type of technology will be seen in the near future in the UK and the EU.
According to The Independent, as of July 6 2022, the EU ruled that all new cars manufactured in Europe must be fitted with speed limiters or intelligent speed assist (ISA) technology, and the UK is following suit.
What are concerns New Yorkers have about the proposed bill?
“Some of the critics have made that point exactly when you’re merging on I90 and rush hour traffic is going to be kind of difficult to have to be concerned with if you’re just trying to speed up,” said Piedmont.
“A lot of time, states will add heightened vehicle emission standards, but this is covered by Vehicle Safety Standards, which are under the jurisdiction of the federal government.”
Piedmont said there might also be some constitutional issues with the state attempting to regulate this that it would probably be played out in court.
“I could see the vehicle manufacturers immediately having an issue having to be required to include this in every vehicle manufacturer of motor vehicles, after 2024.”
Even though New Yorkers are finding a lot of negatives to this bill, Piedmont says it has potential for a positive change.
“I think that introducing some of those safety features, like the blind spot information, the emergency lane, keeping the drowsiness of distraction recognitions, I could see that those being implemented in state-owned and school owned vehicles. That might be something that people would be much more open to.”
