ANALYSIS: Can New York Mandate Speed Governors on New Cars?

Eve Kessler reports:

Advocates are cheering a first-in-the-nation New York bill that would mandate speed-limiting technology in new cars and would limit large passenger vehicles that have blind spots that endanger pedestrians and other vulnerable road users.

But does New York even have the authority to regulate cars this way? And would the law be doomed to a legal challenge from automakers or the federal government?

The answers to these questions are important as states seek to take up the slack in federal safety regulation, which has allowed the spread of oversized “assault” vehicles to push pedestrian deaths, which were falling until 1990, to a 40-year high.