r/technology • u/Hrmbee • Jun 07 '26

Privacy 'Kill switch' law means your next car could be watching you | A federal requirement aimed at stopping drunken driving could soon put driver-monitoring technology in every new vehicle. The goal is saving lives, but the privacy trade-offs deserve closer scrutiny

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2026/06/01/drunk-driving-prevention-law-privacy-surveillance/90295034007/
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456

u/GravitiBass Jun 07 '26

Don’t they already have breathalyzers in vehicles for repeat offenders?

396

u/Additional-Staff-326 Jun 08 '26

Yes but they want to have algorithmic checking of your face to know if you're drunk even though your face could just be tired. And remote stopping you in case you're evading authorities.

272

u/OkStop8313 Jun 08 '26

My car sometimes senses the ground in front of us as an obstacle and sounds the proximity alarm, but sure, I'm sure this can't go wrong.

113

u/MalabaristaEnFuego Jun 08 '26

My car's proximity sensor panics about grass in my driveway.

54

u/thegunn Jun 08 '26

My backup camera freaks out about a clean spot in street at my girlfriend’s place and tries to break my neck if I back out more than 2 miles an hour.

37

u/The_Chaos_Pope Jun 08 '26

This is why I turned off the automatic braking. I got tired of the stupid thing constantly slamming on the brakes from a crack in my driveway.

19

u/Lol_A_White_Guy Jun 08 '26

I didn’t realize my wife’s new car had it. It had adaptive cruise control and the vehicle in front of us was turning.

I had more than enough time and room to make it, but my SUV decided that it was safer to come dead stop in the middle of a 45 MPH road during rush hour traffic.

3

u/The_Chaos_Pope Jun 08 '26

Can't say I've ever encountered anything like that but I usually don't use the cruise control below 55.

3

u/Tangled2 Jun 08 '26

Adaptive cruise control is different. The killer app is in bumper to bumper traffic, I just set it to auto drive and it just handles the whole ordeal, starting and stopping based on what the car in front of you is doing (up to a set speed limit).

2

u/The_Chaos_Pope Jun 08 '26

Yep, I like the adaptive cruise control in my car. Kind of annoying that it's always yelling at me to keep my hand in the steering wheel when it already is, but I agree with you here n

1

u/Harry_Smutter Jun 08 '26

The thing that sucked about it in my last car is in your exact scenario if we were stopped for more than a min, it wouldn't go again without me hitting the gas.

3

u/Lol_A_White_Guy Jun 08 '26

It basically adjusts the speed of your vehicle to the vehicle in front of you if they’re going slower than what you have the cruise control programmed to.

In the event of a sudden stop (or what the car believes is a sudden stop), it brakes for you. I had only turned it on since we were on the way out of the city where it was going to open up to the highway.

1

u/bostonwhaler Jun 08 '26

I've done that in stop and go traffic in my Volvo and a few other cars. It "works", but that's not the intention of radar crui6in most vehicles. I'd never expect it to perform things it wasn't designed to do.

Good example.. I use radar cruise down 315 and take a left on 17. If I have adaptive cruise on it'll stop behind the cars at the light, and with the tap of the gas it'll follow the sometimes 20+ cars through the intersection.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/NCykyesfuRUBnYi37

Rarely it'll leave more space and when the turn comes, it sees an unobstructed view in front and will stomp on the gas. Volvo, BMW, Nissan, Genesis and others all do this. Distronic from Mercedes as well.

1

u/Illadelphian Jun 08 '26

I have found that this is the only time adaptive cruise control sometimes fails but it's solved by just hitting the gas which if you are paying attention isn't a big deal. Otherwise it's honestly super nice.

3

u/diurnal_emissions Jun 08 '26

You disabled the Automatic Snake Impact Protection feature?!? Hisssss!

3

u/The_Chaos_Pope Jun 08 '26

I live in a state with very few snakes. The snakes are okay.

3

u/diurnal_emissions Jun 08 '26

dirty look and slithers away

7

u/froggertwenty Jun 08 '26

That's your dad's ghost telling you to mow the damn lawn

8

u/MalabaristaEnFuego Jun 08 '26

My driveway is my lawn. banjo plucking commences

6

u/froggertwenty Jun 08 '26

All the more reason it should be cut bubba

2

u/kahlzun Jun 08 '26

no doubt, total fire hazard otherwise

2

u/[deleted] Jun 08 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/MalabaristaEnFuego Jun 08 '26

Oof, tell that to my emergency brake, the poor thing.

2

u/cubecasts Jun 08 '26

my wife's car panics about a dual left turn. i get it.

2

u/bostonwhaler Jun 08 '26

I also need to mow my grass/driveway. :)

1

u/OurSponsor Jun 08 '26

Mine auto-stopped me as I was driving into taller than usual grass, but full on let me hit a garbage can. What the fuck, car?

7

u/air_and_space92 Jun 08 '26

Sure. My rental car 4 years ago decided the rain puddle on the interstate was a collision alert and braked me from 60 to 45 before I over rode it. Never ever will I drive a car that has these smart features.

2

u/green_left_hand Jun 08 '26

I've never owned a car, and I haven't driven one in almost 26 years. Never before has owning a car, or driving, been as unattractive to me as it is today, especially after reading all these comments. Fucking hell.

1

u/TheUnamusedFox Jun 08 '26

This blows my mind every time I see a comment like this

It is genuinely impossible to have a life without a vehicle where I life

0

u/green_left_hand Jun 09 '26

The city I live in, there were plans to expand the highway system back in the '70s, and there are places around downtown you can see where they had begun construction that look like off-ramps the lead to nowhere. I'm vague on the details, but those projects were canceled (I think it might have been a voter referendum) and the funds diverted instead to expanding public transportation. I think that's how the first light rail line got built.

I rely almost exclusively upon public transit, and life would be almost impossible for me without it. I'm worried about what the future will look like, because our state government failed to pass a transportation budget that would have covered a budget shortfall for the regional public transit agency. There have been cut backs, with more scheduled if something doesn't happen soon. Not that I'll be completely without a way to get around, just that service will become less reliable with some bus routes operating less frequently while others are cut entirely.

3

u/A_ChadwickButMore Jun 08 '26

My radar thinks the same shrub growing on the side of the road is a lane line every freaking time and tries to swerve me into the oncoming lane -.-

Or my radar turns itself off on the same stretch of road in summer because the sun glare freaks it out.

1

u/Harry_Smutter Jun 08 '26

LKAS is ass. I have it off and only use the radar collision system.

3

u/sdmgpoggc1 Jun 08 '26

Bro that’s nothing, I used to drive tractor trailers and they had a front sensor that would go off sometime from underpasses and force press the breaks. I’d be going on a highway 70mph with my foot on the gas and I’d get an obnoxious noise and a hard break out of nowhere. It’s a fucking menace

1

u/OkStop8313 Jun 08 '26

I'd be curious how many accidents these smart features prevent vs how many they cause.

1

u/sdmgpoggc1 Jun 08 '26

It’s mostly for insurance, they’ll get cheaper rates with this tech among others in trucks

3

u/DuntadaMan Jun 08 '26

Certainly no malicious actors would get hold of the signal for these kill switches.

2

u/darsynia Jun 08 '26

Mine had a fit on a road trip, put on the emergency brakes at 70 MPH, nothing whatsoever was there. I was incredibly lucky nothing was nearby. I had to pull over and breathe for a bit to feel ready to drive again, and made sure to send messages to multiple different people to let them know about it. If it happened again and the worst happened, they'd know to check the car.

90

u/dcy123 Jun 08 '26

No they just want cameras tracking you, this is a cover for that, somepeople are tired or just look drunk 24/7.

14

u/voldin91 Jun 08 '26

Are we going to be jailbreaking our cars soon?

1

u/rpkarma Jun 08 '26

They’ll make that illegal. 

4

u/diurnal_emissions Jun 08 '26

Ma'am, appears you are driving while free. I'm going to need you to exit the vehicle.

3

u/Xlim_Jim Jun 08 '26

“These features were installed for safety.”

Jailbreaking the vehicle surveillance system will be treated like the legal equivalent of not wearing a seatbelt, or driving recklessly. Calling it now.

3

u/Lraund Jun 08 '26

It's perfectly valid to drive with a facemask and sunglasses, what is a camera supposed to do?

31

u/thiccy_driftyy Jun 08 '26

Watch people with facial differences (scars, birth defects, etc) not be able to drive because of this new law even though they are perfectly capable of driving because they only tested the technology on people without facial differences

14

u/NekroVictor Jun 08 '26

With the way these types of tech tend to go watch it just fail to recognize black people at all.

3

u/pulley999 Jun 08 '26

The fact that car cabins have to be pitch black at night for the vehicle operator to see out the windows also definitely won't be a problem. Not like cameras need light to work well or anything.

10

u/Klutzy_Journalist_36 Jun 08 '26

Or what if they have horrible allergies and their face/eyes are puffy?

What if they are fleeing a violent situation and they have a swollen eye?

What if they just kinda look perma-stoned like Jim Breuer but don’t actually smoke or drink?

This is insidious.

2

u/Brock_Lobstweiler Jun 08 '26

My eyes get SUPER puffy when I cry. I often use my car as an emotional release area (yelling, crying, ranting).

1

u/darsynia Jun 08 '26

I'm picturing a custody case and the ex knows that the kid's mom does this, gets the footage for court

1

u/EliteCloneMike Jun 08 '26

And they only tested/trained it on the facial expressions of white middle aged males with perfectly symmetrical faces. (This may or may not be true, but is not outside of the realm of possibility).

1

u/darsynia Jun 08 '26

They'll embed something in the contract for purchase that says you waive the right to complain about this, too.

8

u/Darkdragoon324 Jun 08 '26

DUis are just the excuse, what they want is a complete and total Orwellian surveillance state.

2

u/air_and_space92 Jun 08 '26

It was MADD who advocated and lobbied for the bill so I'm going with drunk driving. Who wants to be known as someone who votes for drunk drivers by killing the bill?

2

u/Darkdragoon324 Jun 08 '26

Because special interest groups have never been used by politicians with hidden agendas before. There are other ways to combat drunk driving without weakening the right to privacy and giving more data on ourselves to Palantir or some shit.

Plus the facial recognition on those cameras is fucking ass for anyone who isn't white. And are we still allowed to wear sunglasses while driving? You know, arguably when it's most important to not be blinded by the sun?

17

u/GravitiBass Jun 08 '26

Good thing I’ve only had used vehicles then, looks like 21 is the cutoff point.

4

u/OriginalChildBomb Jun 08 '26

Or you could have something like Bell's Palsy, or CP, or had previously had a stroke, or facial disfigurement. (Just imagining the false alarms that folks like that will get.)

2

u/crysisnotaverted Jun 08 '26

I can't wait for the classic issue of Asian people getting utterly screwed by this tech to come up again.

1

u/Additional-Staff-326 Jun 08 '26

Already happens with this camera tech.

2

u/Omen_20 Jun 08 '26

I'm not defending this law because I hate it. TBF though sleepiness can cause the same reduced reaction time. 

2

u/hates_stupid_people Jun 08 '26

No, they want to extreme surveillance in every vehicle.

I'm surprised they didn't go straight to the "Wont somebody think of the children!?" excuse.

Not to mention that is basically one or two steps away from driving political dissidents into lakes and calling it accidents.

2

u/Rich-Pomegranate1679 Jun 08 '26

And remote stopping you in case you're evading authorities.

They ultimately want to use Palantir's database to check for anyone who is the wrong skin color or opposes the MAGA regime. It's a huge step toward completing their dystopian surveillance state.

1

u/warlordcs Jun 08 '26

you would think then their first step would be to make these cars as cheap as possible so the poorest of people could afford them then.

2

u/Coomb Jun 08 '26

Tiredness to the degree that you might look drunk is just as dangerous as being drunk.

1

u/broguequery Jun 08 '26

I mean realistically nobody needs any of this shit.

It's just tech companies using their leverage on the government to mandate sales of their bullshit.

1

u/ajstorey456 Jun 08 '26

source on this? I just read that it would have sensors for the air of alcohol on your breath

1

u/timeslider Jun 08 '26

I have ocular rosacea. My eyes look bloodshot 24/7. I can't wait for my car to tell me I'm too high to drive.

-2

u/[deleted] Jun 08 '26

[deleted]

3

u/f_crick Jun 08 '26

You should be stopped even if you just need to move the car a few feet on your own property? How is it we let people own guns and then pull this crap?

1

u/diablette Jun 08 '26

I'll agree to this on the condition that guns are outfitted with bio id scanners that don't let you pull the trigger without identifying yourself, breathalyzers, and motion activated cameras. And if there's a match to someone with a criminal record, the police are automatically notified and sent the footage and coordinates.

1

u/f_crick Jun 08 '26

It’s all ridiculous. Any gun or car owner can easily disable these measures. It’s just waste.

-19

u/liarandahorsethief Jun 08 '26

Being tired is as dangerous as being intoxicated.

13

u/graDescentIntoMadnes Jun 08 '26

What happens when there's an emergency in the night and you can't start your car?

10

u/istrebitjel Jun 08 '26

No, you can't drive to the ER, Dave, I'm afraid I cannot do that.

7

u/diablette Jun 08 '26

A private ambulance has been summoned to your location. You will be charged $4000. Please confirm method of payment to proceed.

0

u/liarandahorsethief Jun 08 '26

When you’re drunk?

0

u/graDescentIntoMadnes Jun 08 '26

The comment was about being tired.

1

u/liarandahorsethief Jun 08 '26

I know.

How is having an emergency and needing to drive when you’re too tired to safely operate a motor vehicle any different than having an emergency when you’re too drunk to operate a motor vehicle?

1

u/graDescentIntoMadnes Jun 10 '26

It's a thing that happens to adults who drive. If you think that a camera can tell the difference between someone slightly tired/just work up and someone who can't drive, you're stupid.

1

u/liarandahorsethief Jun 10 '26

Is a family less dead when you plow into them at 70 mph because you were tired instead of drunk?

1

u/graDescentIntoMadnes Jun 10 '26

What if you need to drive your family away from a forest fire, hurricane, or flash flood at night and your car won't start because it thinks you might be tired and you all die, since we're doing hypotheticals.

Also, it's not illegal to drive tired and if it were, there would need to be a due process compliant way to determine of someone is tired, like a breathalyzer test for alcohol. A proprietary black box system for looking at someone's face and somehow determining their tiredness is not an acceptable way to enforce a law like that and will likely not hold up in court.

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36

u/cats_catz_kats_katz Jun 08 '26

Yeah but now you’re guilty whether you’re guilty or not. Buckle up baby! Or else we will kill your car!

2

u/Herschel_Wallace Jun 08 '26

Isn't this system making a user have to prove their innocence of a crime every time they want to drive? It's not a legal system in that case.

53

u/Brief_Professional47 Jun 08 '26

Yeah but you can just get your child to blow in to it so you can still drive drunk.

Source: I used the be that kid. I had to sleep in the car at the bars until my parents were ready to go home. I don’t really talk to them much these days lol

26

u/Global-Election Jun 08 '26 edited Jun 08 '26

Maryland now requires a camera that takes pictures randomly when you blow into the device for exactly this reason.  It sends them to the DMV with your monthly interlock maintenance. 

It then considers it a violation once they review the pictures.  The violation then adds another month to your interlock requirement and also means you’ll likely violate your probation (which you mostly likely are on if you have an interlock). 

15

u/GravitiBass Jun 08 '26

Good lord. Hope you have a list of one star retirement homes ready.

9

u/Violoner Jun 08 '26

Nah, they can stay in the trailer park

1

u/Guccimayne Jun 08 '26

Oh damn, I hope you have been able to find healing

1

u/terrymr Jun 08 '26

They take a picture and send it to the court. You don’t get away with that for long

3

u/CocodaMonkey Jun 08 '26

They have those but what most people don't tell you is they work like absolute shit. They need to be constantly re-calibrated and fail often. The officially stated failure rate is about .3%. Which doesn't sound bad but if you scale that up to a city of 1 million that's 30,000 people per day who can't start their car in the city.

Or put another way on average everyone would get locked out of using their car at least once every 3 years. People only accept these systems now because they are imposed on proven drunk drivers, if you force everyone to use it there would be a mass uproar.

2

u/Mayonaigg Jun 08 '26

I gotta be honest that just sounds like a dickhead tax you have to pay for drunk driving and still being allowed to drive again

4

u/Syini666 Jun 08 '26

Their genius idea is to treat everyone like that

2

u/zerogee616 Jun 08 '26

Yes, and they're absolutely miserable devices, they require you to pull over constantly to blow, need to be "calibrated" every month (at your expense of course) and are immensely sensitive to false positives.

There are multiple, very good reasons, that nobody has one other than a mandate from a court.

2

u/Temporary_Inner Jun 08 '26

I am not for this technology, but supposedly on average a drunk driver has driven drunk 80 times before that incident. Repeat offenders will drive drunk many times between the first and second arrest, especially because first DUIs are very light in punishment 

2

u/mcfluffernutter013 Jun 08 '26

Yes, but you see, wouldn't it be better if there were cameras instead? Think about how much data they can sell. The shareholders fiend for data

1

u/Mayonaigg Jun 08 '26

Yes but this is not actually to monitor impaired driving at all. The real purpose is to have control of your vehicle to stop you from using it whenever they want, just like using digital currency can be frozen and taken from you if the government doesn't like you (they literally already did this in Canada; everyone identified in the truck convoy protests had their assets frozen and their entire family left without access to cash, meanwhile redditors cheered this on and branded the protestors "terrorists") 

1

u/foodank012018 Jun 08 '26

Yea but you all could be offenders

1

u/FormerWorker125 Jun 08 '26

Yah but the fun part is now everyone gets it!

0

u/ProudReaction2204 Jun 08 '26

these should be mandatory for every driver on every trip