Quick answer: California's Motor Vehicle Glass Act, Senate Bill 988, was signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom on September 27, 2026, and takes effect January 1, 2027. It does four main things. It requires glass shops to tell you before the job whether your vehicle has driver-assistance features and whether the manufacturer calls for calibration, then tell you in writing afterward whether the calibration worked. It requires an open insurance claim and a claim number before a shop can contract for work your own policy will pay for. It bans signing your insurance benefits over to a glass shop. And it confirms that you, not your insurer, pick where the glass and calibration get done. What it does not do is limit you to "ADAS compliant" shops, which is how a graphic making the rounds on Facebook summed it up.
Here's what the law actually says, section by section, and what it changes for anyone getting a windshield replaced in California.
Where the "ADAS compliant" line came from
A graphic going around Facebook this fall boiled the law down to one headline: California's new auto glass law lets customers pick where they want their windshields replaced, "as long as the shop is ADAS compliant." It credits BodyShop Business, which did report on the signing.
The first half is right. The second half isn't in the law. SB 988 doesn't create a certification, a license, or any kind of "compliant" status a shop has to hold before you're allowed to choose it. What it does is put disclosure duties on whichever shop you choose. If that shop can't calibrate your camera, it has to say so up front and point you to someone who can.
That's a real difference. The Facebook version says some shops are off-limits. The actual law says every shop has to be straight with you about what it can and can't do, and the choice stays yours either way.
What SB 988 is
Bill: Senate Bill 988, authored by Sen. Tim Grayson (D-Concord)
Signed: September 27, 2026, as Chapter 666, Statutes of 2026
Where it lives: a new Title 1.5C of the California Civil Code, Sections 1784.50 through 1784.58
Votes: 35–0 in the Senate in May, 78–0 in the Assembly on August 24, and 37–0 when the Senate signed off on the Assembly's amendments on August 26
Takes effect: January 1, 2027
The bill is California's version of the Motor Vehicle Glass Model Act written by NCOIL, the National Council of Insurance Legislators, a national group of state lawmakers who draft model insurance laws. NCOIL's property and casualty committee adopted the model in February 2025. Its sponsor, Kentucky Rep. Michael "Sarge" Pollock, said it was based on a law Kentucky had already passed in response to auto glass repair fraud.
The California bill changed a lot on the way through. It was amended five times between March and August, and two of those changes, covered below, narrowed who the law applies to and spelled out your right to pick a shop in much more detail.
Calibration is now part of the repair, by definition
Start with the definitions, because one of them does more work than it looks like.
Section 1784.51 defines "repair or replacement of damaged motor vehicle glass" to include "calibrating or recalibrating an advanced driver assistance system when an incident requires the replacement of damaged motor vehicle glass."
In plain terms, under California law, putting the camera back in spec is part of replacing the windshield. It isn't an upsell or a separate job you're on your own to figure out.
The law defines an advanced driver assistance system by pointing to SAE International's J3016 standard: any electronic safety system designed to support the driver and reduce crash losses. On most newer vehicles that means the camera behind the rearview mirror that runs lane keeping and automatic emergency braking, and on many models adaptive cruise and traffic sign recognition too. Not every vehicle needs calibration after a glass job, and we walked through how to tell in Do I Need ADAS Calibration After a Windshield Replacement?
What a California glass shop has to tell you before the job
Under Section 1784.53(a), before a glass shop does any work, it has to tell you:
Whether your vehicle has ADAS at all.
If it does, whether the manufacturer recommends calibration after the windshield repair or replacement.
Whether the shop intends to calibrate it in a way that meets the manufacturer's specifications.
If the shop can't or won't calibrate, that the vehicle should go to the manufacturer's certified dealership or a qualified specialist who can.
That last one is the honest version of the Facebook headline. A shop that doesn't do calibration can still replace your windshield in California. It just can't hand you the keys without telling you the job isn't finished.
One detail worth noticing: the law says the shop owes these disclosures to "a person," not just to someone filing an insurance claim. Paying cash doesn't get you a shorter version.
What you get in writing after the job
When the work is done, Sections 1784.53(b) and 1784.54(c) require the shop to give you:
An itemized invoice, and a receipt once you've paid
A written notice saying whether the ADAS calibration was successful or not
If it wasn't successful, advice not to rely on the driver-assistance system until a certified dealership or qualified specialist calibrates it successfully
Section 1784.55(c) adds that these notices have to be printed in the same size font as the invoice, estimate, or receipt. So the calibration result can't be tucked into fine print at the bottom of the page.
A failed calibration is a real outcome, by the way. Lighting, floor level, target placement, and the glass itself can all get in the way of a camera calibrating on the first try. The law doesn't penalize a shop for a calibration that didn't take. It penalizes not telling you.
Estimates and pricing
Section 1784.54(b) requires a shop to give you a good-faith estimate of what it expects to charge, then an updated estimate before it starts. It also bars the shop from charging more than "reasonable and customary" fees for the glass and for any calibration the manufacturer recommends.
A separate provision, Section 1784.55(b)(1), says a shop can't charge more than a reasonable price charged by glass shops "within a specific geographic area." The law doesn't say how big that area is or how "reasonable" gets measured, and that was a sore point during the debate. The Independent Glass Association asked lawmakers to define reasonable pricing using multiple independent data sources, rather than relying on what insurers or their networks pay.
The claim-number rule, and why independent shops are worried about it
This is the part of SB 988 that got the most pushback.
Under Section 1784.54(a), a glass shop can't contract with you for work that would be paid by your own insurance policy until all three of these are true:
You've made a first-party claim for the glass
The shop has received a claim or referral number for it
The shop has given you the ADAS disclosures described above
In practice, if your own insurance is paying, the claim has to exist first. A shop can't sign you up on the spot and sort out the claim afterward. If you're paying out of pocket, this rule doesn't apply.
The Auto Glass Safety Council and the Independent Glass Association both objected to the requirement, calling it anti-competitive. At an April hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Eloise Gómez Reyes said the concern from opponents wasn't so much the claim number itself as the worry that it could shift leverage toward insurers and their preferred shop networks, according to glassBYTEs' account of the hearing. The IGA had asked that customers be allowed to authorize service before or after filing a claim. The final law kept the claim first.
No more signing over your insurance benefits
An assignment of benefits, or AOB, is a form that hands your insurance claim to the shop so it can act for you and go after the insurer for payment directly. Section 1784.52 bans them for glass.
If your policy covers windshield and calibration work, you can't assign, delegate, or transfer your rights or benefits under that policy to anyone else, either before or after a loss. Any contract that does it, signed on or after January 1, 2027, is void and unenforceable.
What the law still allows: you can authorize or direct your insurer to pay the shop, or pay the shop yourself. So direct billing doesn't go away. What goes away is the shop owning your claim.
Supporters, including insurer trade groups and Safelite, told lawmakers that AOBs, inducements, and aggressive marketing were leading to improper calibrations, unnecessary replacements, inflated claims, and overbilling. They pointed to Florida, where they said glass-related lawsuits fell 80% in the year after that state's law took effect. The IGA argued that a post-loss assignment can be a useful tool, and asked that it stay legal while pre-loss assignments were banned. That amendment didn't make it in. The ban covers both.
No gift cards, no "your insurance covers everything" promises
Section 1784.55(a) bars a glass shop, or anyone paid to solicit insurance claims, from offering a rebate, gift card, cash, coupon, prize, bonus, or "any other thing of value" in exchange for directing or making a glass claim. If you've ever been offered a gift card to let someone file a windshield claim for you, that's exactly what this targets.
Section 1784.55(b) also spells out what a shop can't do on a glass claim, including:
Submit false, misleading, or incomplete paperwork to you or your insurer
Say the work was done somewhere it wasn't, or advise you to falsify the date of damage, to get a bigger payment or change your coverage
Falsely sign a work order or insurance form
Misrepresent the price
Tell you your insurer approved the job without verifying it with the insurer directly and getting that confirmation in writing or on a recorded call
Tell you the job will be fully covered "at no cost" unless the insurer has actually verified the coverage
Damage the vehicle, or do work "clearly and substantially beyond" what's needed to restore it to a safe pre-damaged condition
Misrepresent its relationship to you or to your insurer
Most of that was already illegal under general fraud law. What's new is having it written out for auto glass specifically, with penalties attached.
Your right to choose the shop, in writing
This is the part the Facebook graphic got right, and it's stronger than the headline suggests.
Section 1784.56(a) says that if you make a first-party glass claim, you can't be required to use a particular glass shop or recalibration facility to get paid under your policy. The law lists what your choice includes: independent shops, network and non-network shops, affiliated and nonaffiliated facilities, dealerships, and qualified specialists. It also says insurers, agents, adjusters, and anyone acting for them can't "purposefully mislead, threaten, or coerce" you into using, or not using, a particular shop.
That detailed list of choices was added in the Assembly in August. It wasn't in the bill the Senate first passed.
Section 1784.56(b) sets the limits. Your insurer can still recommend a shop, explain your coverage and limits, and run a network of glass shops. That section also says it doesn't create a private right to sue.
So when you call to report the claim, the person on the line can still suggest a network shop. They can't tell you that you have to use it, and they can't try to scare you off the shop you picked.
Who the law covers, and who it might not
The duties in SB 988 fall on a "motor vehicle glass repair shop," which the final law defines as a person or business "primarily engaged in automotive glass replacement, including the cutting, fabrication, repair, and installation of vehicle windows and windshields."
That's narrower than where the bill started. The version introduced in February covered anyone who repaired or replaced vehicle glass for pay. As Autobody News pointed out, the narrower wording may leave out many collision shops that replace a windshield as part of a larger repair. The law doesn't define "primarily engaged," so where a mixed shop lands may get sorted out later.
Glass shops and mobile glass companies are clearly in. A body shop putting in a windshield as one line on a collision estimate may not be.
Penalties and who enforces them
Under Section 1784.58, a violation carries a civil penalty of up to $500 for the first one and up to $2,000 for each one after that. The penalties are collected through a civil action brought in the name of the people of California by a city attorney, a county counsel, or the Attorney General.
$500 isn't much on a single job. Up to $2,000 per violation after the first, across a busy shop's volume, is a different number.
Who backed it and who fought it
The Senate Judiciary Committee's analysis lists the supporters as the American Property Casualty Insurance Association, the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies, the National Insurance Crime Bureau, the Pacific Association of Domestic Insurance Companies, the Personal Insurance Federation of California, and Safelite.
The opposition was Bay Area Auto Glass Express and the Independent Glass Association, which argued the NCOIL template favors insurer-aligned companies and would hurt small independent shops. The IGA kept opposing the bill after the Assembly's August amendments and urged the industry to ask Newsom to veto it. He signed it instead.
Sen. Grayson told the Judiciary Committee the bill was about protecting consumers, not regulating independent shops, pointing to "poor outcomes for consumers, including inflated claims or overbilling."
California isn't the first state to do this
New York signed its own version into law at the end of 2025. It requires similar ADAS disclosures, bans shops from requiring an assignment of benefits, and fines violations up to $2,500 each. Arizona, Florida, Kentucky, Maryland, and Utah had already passed their own auto glass rules, and versions of the NCOIL model were filed or moved this year in Illinois, Louisiana, Virginia, and Washington.
Getting a windshield replaced in California after January 1? What to expect
Expect the ADAS disclosure before the work starts. If your vehicle has a camera behind the mirror and nobody brings up calibration, ask.
If your insurance is paying, open the claim first. The shop needs a claim or referral number before it can contract for the job.
Don't sign an assignment of benefits. As of 2027, a new one is void anyway. Authorizing your insurer to pay the shop is still fine.
Get the calibration result in writing, and keep it with your invoice. If a driver-assistance warning shows up later, that's the first thing anyone will ask for.
If the calibration didn't take, don't rely on the system until it's been calibrated successfully.
Treat cash or gift card offers for your claim as a red flag.
Pick your shop. Your insurer can recommend one. It can't require one.
Our take from the shop floor
We're an independent glass shop ourselves, so we read this one from both sides.
The disclosure rules are good. Telling a customer whether the camera needs calibration, doing it to the manufacturer's procedure, and telling them in writing whether it worked is what a careful shop already does. Making it the law raises the floor for everybody else.
The claim-number rule is where reasonable people disagree. Supporters framed the bill as a fix for inflated claims and aggressive claim solicitation. Independent shops worry that claim-first hands the insurer's claim line the first conversation with every customer, and with it more leverage to steer the job to a network shop. The anti-coercion language in Section 1784.56 is the counterweight, and how well it works will depend on whether anyone actually enforces it.
The part most likely to stick, in California and elsewhere, is the definition. Once calibration is written into law as part of replacing a windshield, it gets much harder for anyone to treat it as optional. The federal bill we covered in Right to Repair and Your Windshield moves in the same direction.
Bottom line
SB 988 doesn't limit California drivers to "ADAS compliant" shops. Starting January 1, 2027, it makes every glass shop tell you up front whether your vehicle needs calibration and whether the shop will do it, and tell you in writing afterward whether it worked. It requires an open claim and a claim number before a shop can contract for work your policy will pay for, bans assignments of benefits and claim kickbacks, and puts your right to pick the shop in plain language. The disclosures protect drivers. The claim-first rule is the piece independent shops will be watching.
Windshield Replacement and ADAS Calibration in Fort Worth
SB 988 is California law, and we're a Fort Worth shop. But what it asks for is how a windshield job should go anywhere: you know up front whether your camera needs calibration, it gets done to the manufacturer's procedure, and you know whether it worked before you drive away.
Compass Auto Glass is an independent, locally owned glass shop. We quote by VIN, so you know exactly what glass is going in and whether your manufacturer calls for calibration before anything gets ordered. We recalibrate ADAS in-house, so the job isn't split between two shops and two appointments.
We bill your insurance direct and back every install with a lifetime workmanship warranty. Same-day appointments are often available, and mobile visits inside our Fort Worth service area come at no extra charge.
Windshield replacement in Fort Worth · ADAS calibration · Get a quote
(817) 229-1063 · call or text
Serving Fort Worth, Arlington, Keller, Haltom City, North Richland Hills, and the surrounding area.
Sources: California Senate Bill 988 (Grayson), California Motor Vehicle Glass Act, Chapter 666, Statutes of 2026, adding Civil Code §§ 1784.50–1784.58 (California Legislative Information); SB 988 bill history and votes (California Legislative Information / LegiScan); California Senate Judiciary Committee analysis of SB 988, April 2026; National Council of Insurance Legislators, "NCOIL Property & Casualty Insurance Committee Adopts Motor Vehicle Glass Model Act," February 2025, and Motor Vehicle Glass Model Act (adopted April 2025); BodyShop Business, "California Governor Signs California Motor Vehicle Glass Act Into Law," September 2026; Autobody News, "California Glass Bill Narrows Scope as It Advances Through Legislature," "SB 988 Glass Bill Heads to Governor," and "California Enacts Motor Vehicle Glass Act," 2026; Repairer Driven News, "California Senate Passes NCOIL Glass Act," May 27, 2026, SB 988 coverage, August 31, 2026, and "New York Latest State to Pass NCOIL-Guided Glass Repair, ADAS Calibration Law," December 31, 2025; CollisionWeek, SB 988 coverage, August 2026.