Automakers are Mandated to Include Driver Surveillance Systems in New Cars

You will be allowed to drive your car based on how you drive, behave, and speak. And they can disable your car whenever they want. Hey, what do you have to hide?

Are you “impaired?” The cloud server thinks so, and has now disabled your car.

Remember that 2,700-page, $1 trillion dollar infrastructure bill that was passed by the U.S. government back in August 2023? Did you get around to reading it? No?

Some folks have read the thing, and they’re finding a few surprises buried in that bill. One such surprise is concealed under Section 24220, which requires “new cars to have technology that identifies if a driver is impaired and prevents operation.” You know, public safety and all that jazz.

Impaired driving technology that disables a vehicle has existed for decades in the form of the ignition interlock device, in which a driver must blow into a blood alcohol content (BOC) sensor and show no presence of alcohol in their breath in order to start a car. It is a typical requirement for those busted for DUI by judges that determine the offender must continue to drive in order to earn a living in support of a family.

But this new mandate for automakers is not a move to merely get impaired drivers off the road. If it were, it would simply test for intoxicants. That is not what is being required.

This “passive monitoring” using multiple on-board sensors and AI will analyze all driving behavior, including where you’re going, how you’re driving, what you’re saying inside the vehicle, and what you’re doing inside the vehicle. “Passive monitoring” of a driver’s performance will include data pulled from driver assist systems, in-car video camera, in-car microphones, speed, braking, acceleration, and location via GPS. The data will then be processed and the vehicle can be disabled based on a computer-determined “impairment” of the driver.

Yes, You Read that Correctly.

Let me spell this out for you: By 2026, new vehicles sold in the U.S. will be required to include an on-board system that automatically and silently gathers driving and behavioral data, then makes a decision without any human oversight that will determine whether the owner will be allowed to use their own vehicle. Worse, the measure goes on to require that the system be “open to remote access by authorized third parties” at any time.

The mandate would allow remote access to those who can determine whether or not you can operate your car. This has nothing to do with “public safety” since anyone that is not in direct contact with you cannot determine your degree of “impairment.” And we already have proven measures available to deal with drivers who habitually drive impaired.

What is the real intent in having this kind of technology mandated in ALL vehicles? “Surveillance.”

The notion of a system that “passively monitors” drivers in such a robust manner is a mass assault on a person’s privacy, or at least it should be. But then, privacy has become only a quaint idea after the introduction of the cell phone, the presence of security camera systems on every residential front door, and voice-activated technology inside our homes that is always listening. We are now being surveilled at a rate that was only thought possible in science fiction novels two decades ago. We once considered spying an invasion of privacy, but those days are mostly gone.

“But I Have Nothing to Hide”

My 2024 Hyundai Elantra Limited has a connected car platform (BlueLink) that features a robust built-in navigation system – which I never use. Many people don’t use on-board navigation now that they have grown accustomed to using a smartphone. But perhaps that was not a consideration of Hyundai.

As I drive, my car displays not only posted speed limits in real time but school zone warnings and stop signs, all made possible via the navigation system. Driving performance data is being collected and transmitted to…somebody. Did I come to a compete stop at that empty 4-way intersection, or did I slow to a crawl and then proceed when it was safe to do so? How many times did I exceed the speed limit over the course of a month? When I swerved repeatedly to avoid potholes on that lousy street in Fullerton, did the system think I was high? Did the in-car camera catch me yawning too much this morning?

My data. It’s being collected “passively” while I drive. I don’t own it or have any control over its use. Hyundai also reserves the right to sell my data to anyone. It says so in the very fine print on my lease paperwork.

“But I have nothing to hide” is becoming quite exhausting.

Don’t Call It a “Kill Switch”

Those new surveillance systems that will “prevent or limit motor vehicle operation if a driver is impaired” will be standard equipment on all new cars starting in 2026, pushing the already high price of a new car further out of reach and eroding the last bit of privacy you could have expected while driving.

And the fact that it was concealed from the public in a 2,700-page monstrosity of a spending bill should tell you all you need to know about intentions.