In 2013, Amy Cohen experienced the unthinkable for a parent. It was a mild October day in New York City and her 12-year-old son Sammy stopped by the house to grab a snack on his way from school to soccer practice. He didn’t make it far. When he stepped out onto their street in Brooklyn, Sammy was struck and killed by a speeding van.

“It’s a horror no parent should ever experience,” Cohen told Popular Science. “No one should lose a child or a sibling or a spouse or a parent in this preventable public health crisis.” 

Cohen channeled her grief into advocacy, quickly becoming a leading voice for better public policy to address speeding drivers through a nonprofit called Families for Safe Streets. The organization now has more than 1,200 members nationwide, all of whom have a personal connection to a speeding-related death. Across the country, statistics show that a small portion of drivers who consistently drive too fast—a group referred to by advocates as “super speeders”—are responsible for a sizable chunk of fatal traffic deaths.

Now, nearly 15 years after her son’s death, Cohen and her colleagues are leading a wave of legislation across the country aimed at giving judges the authority to mandate the installation of devices that physically prevent repeat offenders from exceeding posted speed limits. Earlier this week, Washington state became the second U.S. state—after Virginia—to pass a law requiring the installation of these speed-limiting devices in offenders’ cars. At least five other states, including Cohen’s home state of New York, are considering similar legislation.

Supporters see a parallel between the proposed court-mandated speed limiters and the more widely known ignition interlock devices (or “in-car breathalyzers”) used for people convicted of driving under the influence. These newer devices, broadly referred to as “Intelligent Speed Assistance” (ISA) systems, leverage advances in GPS and other technologies embedded in modern connected cars to apply a similar concept to speeding. And while the movement against so-called “Super Speeders” is gaining momentum, some worry that mandatory ISA devices could introduce new, unintended safety risks. The legislation may also face an uphill battle in rural, lower-population states where driving—and driving fast—is deeply ingrained in daily life and culture.

“We’re not saying we’re taking away your vehicle,” Cohen told Popular Science. “We’re saying you need technology in your vehicle to stop you before you kill somebody.”

How does Intelligent Speed Assistance work? 

Devices designed to limit a vehicle’s top speed, sometimes referred to as governors or speed limiters, date back to the early-20th century. Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA) systems differ in that they rely on a combination of the vehicle’s current speed and the posted speed limit. These devices determine the legal speed limit using GPS data synced with a pre-programmed digital map, or by employing the vehicle’s onboard cameras and LiDAR sensors to read speed limit signs in real time. Cameras and LiDAR are the same types of sensors used to help Waymo and other autonomous vehicles “see” the world around them.

Once an ISA system detects that a driver has exceeded the speed limit, it triggers various visual and audio cues, usually in the form of warning chimes and flashing dashboard lights. These systems are referred to as “passive” ISA. All new vehicles sold in the European Union, as of last year, must have passive ISA systems. The “active” ISA systems, which the Super Speeder legislation focuses on, go a step further by using tactile responses to push back on the accelerator or limit the engine’s power output, physically preventing the driver from exceeding a certain speed. 

Judges or local governments can set thresholds for how far over the speed limit a driver can go before the system intervenes—typically around 5 mph above the posted limit. These devices are designed to detect changes in speed limits in advance, giving the driver time to slow down gradually. In theory, this should help avoid scenarios where a vehicle suddenly slams on the brakes upon entering an area with a lower speed limit.

The race to slow down Super Speeders is on 

New proposed legislation across U.S. states takes ISA technology into new legal territory by eliminating—or strictly limiting—certain drivers’ ability to simply ignore ISA warnings. Virginia, which became the first state to pass such a law earlier this year, will give judges the legal authority to mandate that drivers convicted of reckless driving install an active ISA device in their vehicle. The legislation frames this as a possible alternative to incarceration or a full suspension of driving privileges. 

“You’re still allowed to get around,” Cohen told Popular Science. “You’re still allowed to go to your place of work and go wherever you have to go. You just have to do it safely.”

Anyone found tampering with the device as part of a court sentence could face up to an additional year of jail time. The Virginia law is set to take effect in July 2026. Washington D.C. passed its own similar law several months earlier. 

“This is a proven way to make for absolute certain that these repeat offenders won’t be able to speed,” Virginia House Delegate Patrick A. Hope, who was involved in pushing forward the state’s bill, said in a recent webinar. “If we can take speeding out of the equation then we can save lives.” 

Other municipalities appear poised to follow suit. New York, Maryland, Georgia, and Arizona, are all currently debating legislation that would give judges the authority to mandate ISA devices for certain drivers. The specifics vary by location. In New York, for example, a judge would order an ISA installation for a driver who has accumulated six speeding or red-light camera violations in one year, or 11 points on their license over two years. The recently passed Washington state law, by contrast, would apply to drivers who have had their license suspended for going more than 20 mph over the posted speed limit or for participating in street racing.

“This is a very targeted, effective, data driven approach that has gotten even more support than we expected so quickly,” Cohen said.

Advocates say ISA devices, particularly those targeted toward alleged reckless drivers, could make streets significantly safer for both motorists and pedestrians. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), more than 11,775 people died in speed-related crashes last year. Speeding, the agency says, was a “contributing factor” in 29 percent of all traffic fatalities.

There’s reason to believe the issue is getting worse too. Research shows drivers across the country started speeding more during the earlier stages of the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown. Jessica Cicchino, vice president of research at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, believes some drivers may be tempted to drive faster due to “empty roads” driving during lockdowns. But that habit seems to have lingered even when traffic increased. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) claims speeding-related fatalities in the US reached a 14-year high in 2021. 

“Information collected since the lockdowns ended and the roads filled back up suggests that risky driving has become the new normal,” Cicchino said

Though it’s difficult to predict the broader impact of widespread ISA installation, researchers from the European Transport Safety Council (which supports the technology) estimates that it could potentially reduce collisions by 30 percent and decrease carbon emissions from internal combustion engine vehicles by 8 percent. A more targeted, New York pilot program, where ISA devices were installed on 50 fleet vehicles, reportedly resulted in a 36 percent reduction in potentially dangerous hard-braking events. The fleet reportedly achieved these reductions without delays in delivery times.

“This pilot helped ensure almost all drivers with this technology in their cars complied with local speed laws—undoubtedly making our city safer,” New York mayor Eric Adams said in a statement. 

Could ISA devices be the next breathalyzer?

Those in favor of judge-mandated ISA devices point to in-car breathalyzers as a historical analogue. These court-ordered “ignition interlock devices” were first introduced in Colorado in 1985 and require drivers convicted of driving under the influence to blow into a device and register a legal blood alcohol concentration before they can start their car. Today, 31 states require court-mandated breathalyzers for certain offenders. Though itself a form of punishment, the breathalyzers were also pitched as a compromise to prevent people from losing their driving privileges entirely—something that can be devastating in a country where driving is often essential for work and daily life. Supporters say ISA devices serve a similar function. Some of the most vocal advocates of alcohol-related driving reforms—like Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD)—are now also actively pushing for mandatory ISA.

But the technology also has plenty of critics. Some opponents of the Virginia law argue that the inability to temporarily exceed the speed limit could create dangers in certain scenarios, like when a driver is suddenly confronted with a tailgater. There are also emergency situations, like rushing to a hospital due to an injury or pregnancy, or quickly avoiding a potential collision, where it would seem reasonable to allow a driver to momentarily exceed the posted speed limit at their discretion. 

Some proposed state legislation, like the one in Washington, attempts to side step this by including a big red button that drivers could press up to three times per month to override their mandatory ISA system. Cohen told Popular Science that the button is “completely configurable” and can be programmed to only allow a certain amount of uses over a certain amount of time. 

There’s also a question of jurisdiction, which California Governor Gavin Newsom mentioned when he vetoed a passive ISA bill last year. Drivers often cross back and forth between state lines. Would a speed limiter mandated for a driver in New York still work when they crossed over to a state-run New Jersey road? If some of this sounds sparse in details, it’s because it kind of is. States that have passed mandatory ISA laws have given themselves around a year before enacting the law in order to iron out the specifics around how the devices will be used. 

Do Americans crave speed? 

There are also more historical and deeply rooted societal factors that could present hurdles for national ISA efforts. In his book Killed By a Traffic Engineer, University of Colorado Denver professor Wes Marshall argues that countless decisions made by city planners—from road size and street walkability to mediocre driver education requirements—all contribute to the U.S.’ dangerous traffic environment. Local governments, he adds, have actually had the ability to limit vehicle speeds for decades. Some cities and states did just that for newer, short-distance Lime and Bird electric scooters, but not for cars.

“We could use geofencing to limit car speeds within cities, or certain parts of cities, or even by time of day or day of week such as when schools or bars let out,” Marshall writes. “Doing so would save lives. We choose not to.”

Drivers across the country also tend to push for higher speeds when given the opportunity. One stretch of highway connecting Austin and Seguin, Texas, currently allows drivers to reach 85 mph. Ironically, Marshall notes in his book, many drivers associate speed not with danger, but with a greater sense of control. America’s need for speed has deep cultural roots as well. The 12 Fast and Furious movies have collectively bought in $7 billion over their lifetimes—that’s more than the combined GDP of Greenland and Belize.

“For whatever reason, most drivers don’t make the connection between speed and bad safety outcomes,” Marshall adds. 

Cohen pushed back on some of those points, noting that other countries like Canada and Australia, which share many of the same psychological and cultural traits as the United States, have taken much swifter action to pass laws aimed at reducing traffic deaths. In other words, reducing speeding-related fatalities is a solvable problem.

“The data shows how dangerous these drivers are, and we are just saying they need to put the technology in their car and change their behavior,” Cohen said. “It’s all policy.”

 

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