President Joe Biden’s National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is pushing for regulations mandating technology that automatically lowers the speed of all new cars, according to a recent press release.
The technology, known as “intelligent speed assistance” (ISA), tracks vehicle locations and matches them with the corresponding speed limits, according to the press release. At the very least, the NTSB is advocating for ISA systems that issue warnings to speeding drivers, but the technology can also make it increasingly challenging or impossible to go over the speed limit. (RELATED: EVs Could ‘Absolutely’ Lead To More Deaths On The Road, Safety Chair Says)
NTSB calls for technology to reduce speeding in all new cars: https://t.co/G7LVUIVzLk
— NTSB Newsroom (@NTSB_Newsroom) November 14, 2023
“Active systems include mechanisms that make it more difficult, but not impossible, to increase the speed of a vehicle above the posted speed limit and those that electronically limit the speed of the vehicle to fully prevent drivers from exceeding the speed limit,” the press release states.
NTSB cannot craft regulations but it recommends them for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), according to TechCrunch. The NTSB made eight recommendations, including, for the NHTSA to “Require ISA systems that, at a minimum, warn a driver a vehicle is speeding” and for 17 automobile manufacturers to implement the analogous technological function into every new car.
“Eliminating speeding through the implementation of a comprehensive strategy is a priority for the NTSB,” according to the press release. There were over 12,000 lethal car collisions related to speeding in 2021, accounting for around one-third of traffic deaths, it states.
“NHTSA always welcomes the NTSB’s input and carefully reviews it—especially when considering potential regulatory actions,” an NHTSA spokesperson told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
General Motors’ head of its self-driving division Cruise Kyle Vogt left the company on Sunday, according to CNN. He apologized to Cruise’s staff on Saturday for accidents that caused the NHTSA to launch an investigation into the company.
A pedestrian experienced critical injuries after a human-driven car collided with an autonomous Cruise vehicle which subsequently trapped and dragged the person for about 20 feet in San Francisco in October, according to CNN. This was one of the accidents that led to the NHTSA investigation.
The NHTSA requested public comments on the topic of adding ISA to new car assessments and how robust the technology should be, the spokesperson told the DCNF. The agency is still evaluating the comments and working on its ultimate decision.
The NTSB pointed the DCNF a report asserting that ISA potentially could have reduced the damage of a Las Vegas crash that led to nine deaths in 2022.
“We also have a recommendation for NHTSA to develop guidance for states to pilot a more active form of ISA that would restrict speed for repeat speeding offenders, like the driver in this [Las Vegas] investigation,” an NTSB spokesperson told the DCNF.
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