On Saturday, a new driver safety law passed the California legislature. Senate Bill 961 requires every passenger vehicle of the 2030 model year and beyond to "utilize a brief, one-time, visual and audio signal to alert the driver each time the speed of the vehicle is more than 10 miles per hour over the speed limit." Passing the Assembly 42–12 and the Senate 26–9, the only thing that stands between S.B. 961 becoming law is Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom's signature. Once the bill becomes law, violations would not carry mere civil penalties but "would be punishable as a crime."
NPR reports that California state Sen. Scott Wiener (D–San Francisco), who introduced the legislation in January, was surprised by "the intensity" of the pushback. In the NPR piece, Wiener recalled a text from one of his "very best friends in the world" telling him "what a terrible idea [the bill] was" on the day of its announcement as evidence of public disapproval. But an intense response is hardly surprising, in light of the bill's original text.
