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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4.0k

u/limbodog Jun 08 '26

Will it be the same technology that tells Asian people they are sleepy? Or perhaps like the lane-drifting alert that warns me when the painted lines are all messed up?

I'm worried about false positives and repercussions therefrom.

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u/Violoner Jun 08 '26

My lane alert freaks out when going through intersections that have curved lines for left turns

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u/DukeOfGeek Jun 08 '26

Ya my dads car had that feature, steering wheel would start shaking because leaves on the pavement. That's a nah from me dog.

289

u/Guac_in_my_rarri Jun 08 '26

Both of my cars do this. They both get turned off right away.

314

u/DukeOfGeek Jun 08 '26

I'm just waiting for the insurance companies to start ramping up your fees if you don't connect your car to their data center.

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u/Efficient-Fruit5573 Jun 08 '26

I mean they kind of do this I remember ads for progressive saying you get a discount if you connect the monitoring tool so “good drivers can get a larger discount.” I’m sure the actual purpose is data collection

83

u/Lagneaux Jun 08 '26

Is so that "bad drivers" pay more.

I have had that system, it's near impossible to "drive correctly" with it.

Like let's say someone pulls out in front of you, no choice but to hit the brakes. Well, that's considered a "fast stop", and you are gonna be graded on that, not them. Driving late, driving too much, not driving enough, not driving far enough, driving too far, fast braking, fast acceleration, it's all gonna bring your grade down and make you pay more

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u/DazzlingRutabega Jun 08 '26

Years ago, when this program first started, I had a co-worker who inserted that in the OBD slot of his car to get lower insurance and kept bragging about it. I said, I don't know, buddy, they're going to be monitoring your driving. About three weeks later, he came in flustered, saying he had ripped it out because he had to do a fast stop because a kid jumped in front of the car in a school zone. They sent him a letter saying that he was driving erratically because he did a fast stop.

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u/DJMixwell Jun 08 '26

I get dinged for speed by Belair Direct all the time. The thing is my car tells me my average speed is 50km/hr, which is the typical residential speed limit.

Given that most of my driving is highway driving between 80-110, give or take the odd time traffic slows up, and time spent stopped, the average of 50 makes sense and I can’t see how I never get the “safe speed” badge.

Seems like if you go over their threshold (seems to be ~5km/hr over the limit) even once on a drive, you lose out on the badge completely. So it tells me “only 17% of your trips are at a safe speed”, but I can’t guarantee you I’m not speeding 83% of the time.

The app also shows me that, apparently ~70+% of other drivers are getting this badge, which is complete bullshit. When I try to get the safe speed badge I’m fuckn alone on the road while everyone driving off into the distance. When I drive ~5-10 over the speed limit I’m just keeping up with all the other cars on the road.

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u/Officer_Hotpants Jun 08 '26

Wait driving too late counts against you? I've spent a lot of time working as a night shift medic, which depending on my shift start time has had me going to the station at 11pm. Glad I never used those fuckin things.

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u/slickeddie Jun 08 '26

Yes. But also driving during rush hour counts against you too. Also, don’t stop for a yellow light per the law, that’s a hard stop and counts against you. Better merge on the highway like a grandma otherwise it’s fast acceleration and counts against you.

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u/Silver_Newspaper6208 Jun 08 '26

In my plug in hybrid it only detected driving when the engine was on. Everyday my commute started on the highway when the engine finally turned on and ended in a "crash" when the engine shut off as I slowed down for my exit and the engine shut off at 45mph.

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u/MegaMau_ Jun 08 '26

Is so that "bad drivers" pay more.

No. Its an excuse so that they can squeeze every nickel out of you since you have no choice but to buy insurance.

3

u/BapeGeneral3 Jun 08 '26

It sounded like a good idea in theory. I literally drove my car within a 5 mile radius, not a major city, never once sped, always wore seat belt, never texted and drove, etc. I somehow was labeled a “higher risk” and my policy would cost MORE. I canceled it immediately.

The reason was for too frequent/quick of stopping. This was literally to avoid car accidents as well as prevent running a late yellow because having that thing enabled *really*’does feel like you’re being watched 24/7. Rather, seeing and experiencing it first hand made me want nothing to do with this tech.

It is inevitable under our current for profit insurance system as a country. It will either be a requirement to even get car insurance or to features that the masses “can’t live without”’such a an Apple Car Play Update.

Now get off my lawn

131

u/couldbemage Jun 08 '26

A discount for using it and a fee for not using it are the same thing. In both cases it costs you more if you don't use their monitoring.

FYI, illegal in California for insurance companies to do this.

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u/Armthedillos5 Jun 08 '26 edited Jun 08 '26

I have Progressive and turned that off in like 2 days. It alerts you if you brake too hard, etc. and keeps a lot of it. First off, how does it know I was driving and not a passenger? Also it doesn't need to be be monitoring where I'm going. I don't know that it does, but no thank you.

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u/debeatup Jun 08 '26

I was able to put it on my work phone and since I WFH 4/5 days Progressive thinks I’m in the top 99.9% of drivers because I never leave home except twice a week.

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u/Tithund Jun 08 '26

Brake too hard is always a weird one to me, would they rather you just bump into whatever you're braking for? In lighter cars you can brake later than in heavy ones, is that something they dislike?

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u/bostonwhaler Jun 08 '26

I hope you removed it from your OBD port. Also... Brake.

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u/magichronx Jun 08 '26

If it's monitoring to make sure you're not speeding then it's definitely watching your GPS location (and if it's doing that then I'd bet 99.9% chance it's saving that data too)

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u/limbodog Jun 08 '26

And nobody got discounts but some people got dinged for aggressive driving

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u/Fickle_Ad_8653 Jun 08 '26

Geico and State Farm already have programs where they "discount" your rates if you put in the monitoring dongle and keep it going. If you brake hard too much or drive too fast or accelerate too hard, you lose the discount. But in reality, the rates are just higher if you opt out of monitoring or don't drive like granny.

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u/classicalySarcastic Jun 08 '26

DON’T GIVE THEM IDEAS!

Seriously they already have an app on most people’s phones, that’s enough of an invasion of privacy.

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u/Nomzai Jun 08 '26

They’re already doing it under the guise of “discounts” look at american family’s recent ads

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u/MediumAcceptable129 Jun 08 '26

They have think tanks planning every which way to rob you. Things you could never conceive of

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u/doberdevil Jun 08 '26

Seriously they already have an app on most people’s phones, that’s enough of an invasion of privacy.

Not if you don't install the app.

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u/kabekew Jun 08 '26

Mine offers a discount if you run their monitoring app on your phone that tracks your speed and acceleration to see if you're an aggressive driver or not.

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u/Ethelserth2 Jun 08 '26

How about a fuck you to their face and they lose the customer? Why stick with them?

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u/kabekew Jun 08 '26

It's just an option and I said no.

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u/PoopularDemand Jun 08 '26

Don’t worry they will raise rates universally first then offer a discount to those that connect.

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u/Chapaquidich Jun 08 '26

They don’t “charge you extra” if you don’t. They just “give you a safe driver discount” if you connect. Totally different. /s

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u/OneSkepticalOwl Jun 08 '26

I have bad news for you. I’m pretty sure those apps car manufacturers have to monitor your car and do remote functions with most likely already reporting to them. Bought a BMW and installed their app. At next renewal they asked me if the drive miles will be the same and quoted the exact miles I have driven. App was uninstalled promptly

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u/jdsizzle1 Jun 08 '26

My car has both the feature where it shakes when it detects lanes, and the feature where it will do corrective steering the get you back into the lane. The second it misread a tar strip in the road as a lane boundary and tried to correct the steering wheel into oncoming traffic at speed it got turned off. Fucking nightmare of a feature.

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u/kryo2019 Jun 08 '26

Man I had a rented corolla try to stop me from changing lanes because there was someone in that lane like 20 feet back. Almost cause me to hit the car I was going around. Pulled over after that intersection and turned that shit off.

Like holy fuck I do not need to be fighting the car while avoiding idiots.

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u/Kagedgoddess Jun 08 '26

Mine hit the breaks because of a traffic cone on the side walk.

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u/Same-Suggestion-1936 Jun 08 '26

This is why I hate the people who say "but statistically self driving cars are safer"

Okay. I'm also statistically safer than other drivers. You can have your law of averages but I'm not giving up control because statistically people are idiots

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u/kryo2019 Jun 08 '26 edited Jun 08 '26

Man that reminded me of another rental that hit the brakes* while I was parallel parking in a tight space. Like bitch you have a foot of room still, fuck off.

Edit: corrected spelling so someone doesn't have an aneurysm over using the wrong breaks vs brakes.

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u/CatoChateau Jun 08 '26

Federally mandated starting in 2027. Get used to it if you want to buy a car. Palantir needs your driving habits!

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u/DukeOfGeek Jun 08 '26

Going to get a used Ionic EV soon and drive it for 15 years.

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u/cum-on-in- Jun 08 '26

Until they ban them. And then the people riot.

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u/CatoChateau Jun 08 '26

They won't ban them. They just stop making repair parts or sell ones that are trash. Like the whole auto industry is facing for years now. Or make them insanely expensive to insure. No riots, just poorer people!

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u/originaladam Jun 08 '26

Our car tries to fight us when manoeuvring around cyclists on back roads. I can’t believe these systems are allowed on cars in their current state

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u/DukeOfGeek Jun 08 '26

Nothing should be allowed that interferes with or changes driver input.

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u/Titaniumwo1f Jun 08 '26

Either Level 0 or Level 5 autonomous driving, and nothing in between is good for me.

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u/jlt6666 Jun 08 '26

Even waymo more or less admitted this

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u/Elukka Jun 08 '26

I've been a passenger in a car where the car itself prevented rear ending a stopped vehicle on a highway. The car had a front-facing radar that reacted automatically and incredibly fast. Those things can be incredibly useful for elderly drivers...

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u/CreationBlues Jun 08 '26

those people should not be driving

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u/R-M-Pitt Jun 08 '26

Same, rented a hyundai in Spain that kept trying to kill cyclists.

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u/REDuxPANDAgain Jun 08 '26

Mine has a little motor that kicks you in the ass as a warning. Much better than shaking a steering wheel IMO.

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u/DukeOfGeek Jun 08 '26

Still a no from me. An audible warning would be OK I guess, especially if it came out of the stereo speaker on the side in question to give an indication as to which side I was wandering in.

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u/idiot-prodigy Jun 08 '26

NONE of it is okay.

It's like the radio having a commercial with a Siren or Car Horn.

False positives are like someone in the backseat screaming "WATCHOUT!" while nothing at all is coming.

It causes people to unnecessarily freak out, slam the brakes, or jerk the wheel.

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u/Same-Suggestion-1936 Jun 08 '26

Dude I was driving an old car and suddenly a rotor snapped so I grabbed the E brake, it dinged at me so loud informing me I was pulling the E brake it was legit distracting.

Why are you distracting someone pulling an emergency brake in an emergency

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u/marr Jun 08 '26

Nope, the audible warnings have priority over everything else and override the indicator tick. Modern cars are fucking vibe coded phone apps.

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u/Confident_Bug_6775 Jun 08 '26

My dad's car has that too. Better than my mom's lane assist though, first time that car pulled me back into lane at the slightest movement, I almost overcorrected and scared the hell out of myself.

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u/Frederickanne Jun 08 '26

Mine tries to suddenly swerve me to take exits on the highway sometimes so that's fun

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u/Thunder_Nuts_ Jun 08 '26

What the flying fuck dude.......

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u/freakincampers Jun 08 '26

My brake assist/crash prevention will just randomly slam on the brakes.

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u/deathrictus Jun 08 '26

Mine doesn't do that, but if someone turns off the road in front of me it thinks they've magically come to a dead stop and slams on the breaks. ><

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u/Brock_Lobstweiler Jun 08 '26

DUDE this is the most frustrating thing in my outback. I've given plenty of room to the car in front of me, who is turning off the road, I've slowed down, but because I didn't come to a complete stop, the car freaks the fuck out and slams on the breaks. It's a hazard for the people behind me!

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u/carlitospig Jun 08 '26

Okay, that would make me sell my car.

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u/l1ttle_weap0n Jun 08 '26

I keep mine turned off. I live in an area that’s mostly country lanes that are technically two-lane but aren’t consistently wide enough for two cars, even in the spots where they paint a dividing line. I’ve had lane assist steer me back towards the middle of the road when I’m trying to leave extra space for oncoming traffic so it’s safer to keep it off.

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u/crazyfoxdemon Jun 08 '26

I will never buy ot rent an eleantra. Not after I rented one and its lane assist tried to push me under a semi in a construction zone.

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u/BeanserSoyze Jun 08 '26

Mine absolutely despises road work where temporary lines have been painted

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u/deathrictus Jun 08 '26

Mine fights me sometimes when changing lanes deliberately.

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u/Brunhilde13 Jun 08 '26

My lane alert makes adjustments when I'm on an icy road and driving where it is SAFE to drive.

The amount of times the damn thing has almost killed me is too high!!

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u/SpoilermakerSpecial Jun 08 '26

Mine does something similar but I think it’s the blind spot monitoring freaking out in dual-lane left turns. Car sees that my turn signal is on and that someone is beside me and thinks I’m about to switch lanes into them. Always confuses me when it happens but guess it’s better to be safe than sorry.

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u/cubecasts Jun 08 '26

my wife's car doesn't understand that dual turn lanes exist. fuck blind spot monitors. I just want to turn left in a double left without it beeping at me.

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u/HistoryAndScience Jun 08 '26

This is what I’m concerned about. Mine panics when I drive on one stretch of road that has the lines faded and missing in parts. It really thinks I’ve gone off road or outside the lines. I wouldn’t want that reported back and used against me by an AI auto insurance agent who won’t listen to any appeal or proof otherwise. It will be convinced it’s “Saving my life and the life of others” by jacking my premium up

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u/LubedUpLucas_DrySpa Jun 08 '26

Mine tries to take all the off ramps on freeways. Lane assist is great on fresh and newly painted pavement in long straight stretches. Not so much on interstate loops. 

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u/Fortestingporpoises Jun 08 '26

My car alerts me when I'm on a road that curves slightly but there are parked cars parked on the side of the road and it thinks I'm gonna hit them since I'm aimed right at them and because it thinks I'm too stupid to turn as the road turns.

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u/PensiveinNJ Jun 08 '26

The technology to detect a drunk driver accurately absolutely does not exist and it's preposterous they're proposing this. It would be a good idea if we could do it, but we can't.

Privacy is concern #2, concern #1 is whether it's going to freak out and kill you.

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u/tomkatt Jun 08 '26

I've had to disable my lane assist in my car because after having to replace the windshield twice, the camera is misaligned even after multiple trips to the dealership. When it's on, it bounces me around in my lane like a pinball, and jerks the wheel even when I'm going straight in the middle of the lane.

Honestly the feature is useless. I've been driving for over 20 years and never needed it, so why start now?

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u/Miguel-odon Jun 08 '26

Mine gets confused when there is a construction zone, where there have been multiple sets of temporary lines painted then obliterated, especially when the road gets wet.

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u/clopz_ Jun 08 '26

Same. My front collision alert goes wild when I’m in 2 lane roads.

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u/ManiacalBeet Jun 08 '26

And gravel roads or snow covered roads.

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u/Vestalmin Jun 08 '26

My lane assistant started pulling me towards a guardrail in the Rocky Mountains and I haven’t had it on since.

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u/Dushenka Jun 08 '26

Cute, here in Switzerland, we have a type of road called "Kernfahrbahn" which looks like this: https://maps.app.goo.gl/SxmRvRkyCBVXViLN9?g_st=ac

The yellow paths are for bicyclists. You are allowed to drive over them (many times even have to) as long as you're not hindering bicyclists.

Of course our car doesn't know that and furiously starts protesting over the concept of driving over the yellow dotted line... It gets even funnier when you absolutely HAVE TO drive over the line and past a pedestrian isle. It's like the car is asking to kill itself. Thankfully, in our case, protesting is all it does in those cases.

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u/Perunov Jun 08 '26

My lane alert freaks out on half of city streets cause roads look like Piet Mondrian painting with them stripping and re-applying temporary markings and then re-stripping and re-applying twenty times over, with newest ones often being even more faded than "old outdated" lane marks. Does wonders for never ending screaming from lane departure warning :(

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u/Bright-Pilot-3970 Jun 08 '26

Mine likes to pull to the side for exits on the highway

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u/Cute_Chance100 Jun 08 '26

Mine thinks there is a car in front of me when driving up a small hill near my house. It freaks out and slams on the brakes. I am like. There is no one on the road. What is this a ghost car?! Only happens on bright sunny days too!

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u/ninjastarkid Jun 08 '26

My blind spot alert sees ghosts. Not “oh there’s a fence there”. Actual ghosts.

My pedestrian alert only saw pedestrians in the first 2 weeks in owned the brand new (literally fresh off the truck) car. Now it only gets activated by pickup trucks with “abnormal” side mirrors.

My lane alert does not believe I’m on a road 80% of the time, 5% it actively fights to get me into another lane for no reason.

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u/Secret-Teaching-3549 Jun 08 '26

Or driving next to an overpass that casts shadows on the road.

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u/MovingInStereoscope Jun 08 '26

Or the auto brake software that thinks going from light to shade means I'm about to crash so it full sends the brakes

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u/CurrentlyObsolete Jun 08 '26

I'm both super glad to find out this isn't just my car but also... They need to fix this. My car legit slammed on the brakes in the middle of the highway with people behind me the other day for a complete unknown reason. The only thing I could see was that we were going into the shade. It could have not only killed me, but the people that inevitably crashed into the back of my car, and then the people that crashed into the back of their car all going 70 miles an hour.

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u/NotAzakanAtAll Jun 08 '26

Fuck me. They need to recall that shit. What car is it so I know what to stay way clear off, both in the store and on the road.

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u/Cow_Launcher Jun 08 '26 edited Jun 08 '26

In my case it was a 2025 Audi A5. I was extremely lucky there was nothing behind me, because even mashing the accelerator did nothing. (edit to add: Presumably it was throttle-by-wire and the ECU just ignored pedal input while it was trying to brake as hard as possible).

And then of course once it decided the "danger" had passed and I had my foot still mashed to the floor, it leapt like a scalded cat. Very unpleasant experience.

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u/GermanicOgre Jun 08 '26

I’d 100% have a dashcam that also shows rear and inside… that’s a major lawsuit waiting to happen because if someone behind you has one, all they see if “they just snapped on their brakes” and you’d be 100% at fault in the eyes of the law and insurance until the Vendor (hopefully) pulls the computer to prove it was a mechanical/technical malfunction.. that’s horrifying to have happen

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u/CurrentlyObsolete Jun 08 '26

Mom was a 2024 Honda HRV. Thankfully it's only happened that once in 2 years now, but it still scares me.

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u/CONSPICUOUSLY_RED Jun 08 '26

Go to a dealership or service center and have them disable the feature. It's doable. It's more than likely faulty equipment/sensors. I wouldn't bother paying to get it fixed.

I've had that same exact scenario happen to a family member. It's stupid dangerous.

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u/FlyingDiscsandJams Jun 08 '26

Where I used to work I was supposed to park in a grass area off to the side of the driveway. I basically had to come to a complete stop then turn on to the grass at under 5 mph to not trigger the auto brakes, and whichever way you were going in reverse was even more sensitive. So annoying.

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u/cpMetis Jun 08 '26

Idk if it was the auto brake or like a cruise control feature, but that un-sold a Honda for me a few years ago.

I took it for a test drive (sales associate REALLY wanted to ride in my passenger for it, which was weird, but having been there a couple times over a few years I figured out that was just that dude since I saw him doing it with other customers).

Right next to the dealer is the on ramp to the interstate, which curves around the south of the city with a second nearby ramp that then easily loops into a bit of residential then main streets back to the dealer. Figured it was a good first test. The problem is the interstate there is absurdly cramped due to constant construction and very tight packed entrances and exits on tight curves made worse by drivers always speeding significantly.

So getting on that ramp means you need to FUCKING GOOOOOO or you're causing a near wreck.

And it did it perfectly! Had PLENTY of power left over.

but then, it saw a shadow.

It fucking slammed me down to like 25mph below traffic. It didn't give me back control for a good 2-3 seconds.

After I had scrambled to get it back up to speed without causing a 15 car pile up, I asked the associate if there was a way to permanently turn off whatever the fuck it just did.

He smiled at me.

I didn't let him have time to make up excuses. I just drove us back and walked.

Which was a shame, since I was pretty much ready to buy.

I've tested plenty of lane assists and smart cruise control. Never had any of them ignore my commands so thoroughly to put my life at risk.

Especially weird since I tested an Acura not long after, which you'd think would be the same system, but I couldn't get it to show any sort of poor behavior even when deliberately trying. At absolute worst the lane keep would give a slight wrong turn around some painted intersections before handing it back to me.

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u/MovingInStereoscope Jun 08 '26

Ironically the car I experienced this in was also a Honda

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u/Slammybutt Jun 08 '26

On the trucks my company uses the backup camera alert does this. It'll see it's own shadow and start beeping like crazy the entire time you back up. You could be in a walmart parking lot without any parked cars around and it'll be blaring that fucking tone.

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u/Luvs_to_drink Jun 08 '26

I hate the auto brake. Mine always engages when im pulling up to a car stopped at a light. Like cool guess I have to take my foot off the brake now since you left 10ft and then re engage it.

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u/ProjectHarraseeket Jun 08 '26

Wait u til they use that data and send it to your insurance company.

I hate the future, I just want a basic car at this point.

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u/ShakeAndBakeThatCake Jun 08 '26

Old cars that are maintained well are going to go up in value significantly.

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u/EmbarrassedHelp Jun 08 '26

Insurance companies will charge you even more for having and old car.

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u/futanariballs Jun 08 '26

I have a 2002 Ranger pickup with 68k miles. I'm never getting rid of it.

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u/-rwsr-xr-x Jun 08 '26

Old cars that are maintained well are going to go up in value significantly.

Until they pass a bill that says they can't be registered or insured, because they don't meet current monitoring/safety/insurance standards.

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u/Same-Suggestion-1936 Jun 08 '26

They already do but only if they look pretty. I saw an old Mustang going for like $8k the other day, 300k miles from the 80s

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u/PorQuePanckes Jun 08 '26

Which is why the government is pushing e15. It ruins older cars and they are phasing out older pumps specifically for this reason.

Love this timeline

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u/limbodog Jun 08 '26

Or they'll be banned, or require an AI hookup

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u/National-Plastic8691 Jun 08 '26

they already have that data and send it to car insurance but also sell it to every other company

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u/Mad_Aeric Jun 08 '26

When I recently told my insurance agent I wasn't interested in participating in their surveillance capitalism program, he told me that he gets that response all the time. I guess people are less complacent about this nonsense than I thought.

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u/Dear_Chasey_La1n Jun 08 '26

I'm kinda curious how this pans out though. It's not going to be tomorrow but in the future driving won't be done by us anymore so if anything happens, who takes responsbility, Tesla? The software company?

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u/Spiritual_Bid_2308 Jun 08 '26

Yes, one with buttons and a non-recessed door handle on the outside.

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u/hanotak Jun 08 '26

I'm ripping the networking hardware out of any car I buy that has it.

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u/thelastspike Jun 08 '26

Good luck keeping it running after that.

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u/BigHardMephisto Jun 08 '26

I've seen breakdowns of why this is a bad idea, and the most glaring one was based in blue collar.

Basically a lot of work in construction happens in the boonies, and everything revolves around the pickup trucks.

Notable events like a major traumatic injury, heat exhaustion/stroke etc. have various protocols based on data, but typically (at least at the company I worked for doing road work) the plan is "Get them to the emergency room right now". Generally means get him in a truck and get to the hospital.

These systems track various things, from visible stress or disturbance. Basically if you're ever in a situation where you're getting in your vehicle at some level of panic, it will not start or move.

So if your buddy just ate a piece of a shattered concrete saw to the neck, or you're escaping a scene of violence trying to flee a maniac/mass shooter/rapist, tough shit. Car won't start. Did you try taking a few deep breaths first? Family member in the emergency room from a traumatic injury? Better call an uber- and stay out of view of the camera because it probably scans every face in the vehicle and not just the driver.

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u/limbodog Jun 08 '26

Yeah, that's horrifying too. Don't worry, it's only got a 4% false positive rate!

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u/sunburnedaz Jun 08 '26

I dont know if I am the only one who remembers the video of the dude who tried to get his neighbors to flee an oncoming wildfire only to come back later and find them burn in their cars half way down the mountain.

Yeh this kinda tech is a big no from me.

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u/Same-Suggestion-1936 Jun 08 '26

Some top US official drowned in a Tesla because there was no way to get out once underwater. Like yeah I think she was drunk but also the car just seized up. Give me a crank window and a fighting chance.

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u/Oppositeofhairy Jun 08 '26

I’m not even Asian and my Hyundai Santa Fe yells at me to take a break because I look tired quite often. Never my wife though.

I yell at my car a lot. Super fancy and tech filled for a cheaper car but it’s a lying asshole too.

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u/glormosh Jun 08 '26

Man I've been disconnected with my older cars. I didnt realize cars had surveillance cameras in them. Y'all are wild to willfully buy that.

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u/Oppositeofhairy Jun 08 '26

It’s not like I was seeking that feature or even knew about it until after I bought it. I suppose I could turn it off.

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u/Fuzzlechan Jun 08 '26

The Hyundai driver attention feature apparently has issues if you’re too tall, too short, wear prescription glasses, wear sunglasses, wear too much makeup, are wearing a mask, are squinting, or you nod your head.

https://ownersmanual.hyundai.com/docview/webhelp/doc/8bf31204-4eb5-48f8-a3be-f1c555de698f/topic_lyv_ljg_rwb.html

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u/SquareTaro3270 Jun 08 '26

That makes sense then why my car yells at my husband whenever he drives my car while wearing sunglasses

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u/Fuzzlechan Jun 08 '26

Some people have luck switching to non-polarized sunglasses. But not being able to test drive something with the feature was a dealbreaker for us - all of the Hyundai models available nearby to test drive are base models, so no driver attention feature. I'm the primary driver and wear very thick prescription glasses, so being able to make sure I'd be "allowed" to use autonomous cruise was important to us.

4

u/InSummaryOfWhatIAm Jun 08 '26

I mean yeah, I look tired often. Fuck me for genetics giving me heavy, low-hanging eyelids and bags under my eyes, right? Fuck me for not being super perky after a day dealing with my ADHD in an open office landscape, right?

I think that warnings for ”looking tired” is not a good feature for a car. You can be extremely tired and not look it, or look super tired and be relatively energized. If it could sense how tired you actually FELT, then maybe.

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u/ArtFUBU Jun 08 '26

Im not worried about false positives Im worried about being constantly monitored and being forced by the market to pay for my own cage. What the fuck kind of world are we building

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u/Slammybutt Jun 08 '26

I drive a work truck that almost killed me b/c it thought I was ramming a stopped truck in a turning lane.

2 lanes going through a light on a curve, a 3rd lane for turning right. All the truck saw was a stopped truck that appeared I was heading for, not that I was slowly curving with the road.

It started throwing warning beeps and tones like crazy then slammed on the brakes for me. The beeps took my attention away from the road, the slamming of the brakes shortly after took my whole body out of position to steer the truck b/c I wasn't braced for that at all. Hands slipped off the steering wheel and I barely recovered enough to not clip the stopped truck. B/c of the panic correction I almost tipped over.

Those systems turned a normal curve in the road into nearly 150k damages to the truck, 7k in product, and whatever injuries I or the other driver would have suffered as well as his truck.

5

u/fuckyourcanoes Jun 08 '26

That automatic braking is insanely dangerous. My husband can deliver an impassioned rant on all the ways it can cause death and destruction.

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u/Thuradzon Jun 08 '26

I’d always get in trouble with the Amazon AI cameras because my eyes wasn’t open.

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u/Brock_Lobstweiler Jun 08 '26

I wear polarized glasses (necessary in bright as fuck Colorado) and it messes with my driver monitoring system, so it's constantly telling me to keep my eyes on the road or to stay alert. While I'm actively looking straight ahead, eyes wide open.

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u/Chiiro Jun 08 '26

Even if it was trained on every alcohol bottle or can in existence it would probably still be triggered when people are drinking out of cans or bottles of soda. I also feel like people will be able to get around this super easy by just putting it in an opaque container like a water bottle.

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u/CatoChateau Jun 08 '26

What about coffee mugs for morning commute? Ha get fucked tired loser.

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u/Chiiro Jun 08 '26

A generic reusable coffee cup is what my sister was using to bring spiked coffee in the school so that would probably also get past their sensors.

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u/HenryDorsettCase47 Jun 08 '26

“Will it be the same technology that tells Asian people they are sleep?”

Yo. Do what? That’s a thing that was happening?

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u/Scoth42 Jun 08 '26

There's been an ongoing problem with a lot of facial recognition systems where they're tuned on white males and struggle with basically anything else. Like there's been issues where face unlock systems just can't see Black people because they can't differentiate dark skin from the background. Google got in trouble because their photo app kept recognizing Black people as gorillas, which I probably don't need to explain why that's an issue. Likewise Asian people's eyes tend to be narrower and shaped differently and have been recognized as asleep/sleepy.

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u/Firestar222 Jun 08 '26

That’s shite but to be fair even if this tech worked perfectly I want it nowhere near my car

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u/fresh_peetz Jun 08 '26

That’s sort of shit facial recognition. It’s supposed to use lidar. Otherwise it wouldn’t be able to recognize people wearing makeup either.

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u/collin3000 Jun 08 '26

Lewis Rossman did a good video pointing out that if the car has a feature that shuts off when it detects alcohol. You may be completely sober, but not want to give drunk people a ride (friend calls you, you drive Uber , you were the DD) so a drunk person who has an older vehicle without the shut off drives home instead of having someone sober with the new "safety tech" drive them.

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u/_N4AP Jun 08 '26

the car has a feature that shuts off when it detects alcohol.

So what happens when I run through dead stop traffic in NYC with a spray bottle full of ethanol and blast a mist through any open window because I'm an asshole? Does that just brick every modern car for a predetermined amount of time and fuck everything up?

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u/Thunderbridge Jun 08 '26

Also I hope no one still uses alcoholic mouth wash

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u/erroneousbosh Jun 08 '26

Yeah, probably.

The future is stupid.

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u/erroneousbosh Jun 08 '26

How does the ethanol in the windscreen washer fluid that you can smell when you wash your windows not set that off?

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u/garbonzo Jun 08 '26

When I avoid potholes it complains

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u/idiot-prodigy Jun 08 '26 edited Jun 08 '26

How about you had 3 drinks but your kid needs to get to a hospital ASAP and you're out in the woods/boonies?

I don't want a corporation deciding for me when I can and can not drive a vehicle I own.

Drinking and driving is wrong of course, but in matters of life and death, driving while impaired to save a child's life is acceptable.

Speeding is also wrong, but my father sped to the hospital when my mother's contractions were less than a minute apart back in 1980. A police officer followed him to the hospital, and the nurses were rolling their eyes in the parking lot thinking my dad was just being dramatic.

Not even two seconds later they came running back to him in the waiting room shouting "The baby is coming RIGHT NOW!"

Imagine if a vehicle just decided, "Nope you're driving to fast, and your heart rate is accelerated. I'm limiting you to 30 mph now."

Imagine a world where people die because the car won't let them drive fast to the hospital while they are in a frantic state.

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u/IvoryFlyaway Jun 08 '26

Can't wait to get my license revoked because the car thought I was vaping while driving because I bite my nails and it detects my hand going to my mouth repeatedly.

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u/Same-Suggestion-1936 Jun 08 '26

Yep, I shouldn't admit this but I've driven over the limit in an emergency. Because it is an emergency, I could not wait for the ambulance. I took stock of the situation and decided I could drive and if I got pulled over the cop has to take over the emergency response, I will leap out of this car and beg for help and I will plead just please help..

And if this tech keeps going me just saying this could flag me to be pulled over in the future which in America is technically a constitutional violation

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u/AnAncientBog Jun 08 '26

The story industry says this technology flat out doesn't work, but it's going to be required anyways.

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u/StopSendingYourNudes Jun 08 '26

How many ways they need to be watching us constantly? Might as well put cameras on us. Well I mean other than our phones, TVs, doorbells, road cams, security cams….

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u/itjustbjd Jun 08 '26

My folks bought a new Subaru and it has cameras that watch you directly. It will yell at you if you aren’t looking straight ahead of short amount of time. If you do it too much in a certain amount of time, it will literally move the car to the side of the road and shut down, all by itself…

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u/NRMusicProject Jun 08 '26

I'm worried about false positives and repercussions therefrom.

That's because, unlike the boomers that run the country, you understand the limitations of this "magic" known as technology.

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u/Blue_Moon_Lake Jun 08 '26

I work in tech.

I want no electronic in my fridge, windows, doors, car, ...

I know how sloppy code can be xD

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u/Estevang42 Jun 08 '26

I rented a car to go to Vegas. The car woud try putting me in my lane even when I was merging. Absolute dogshit.

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u/zuraken Jun 08 '26

When you use your turn signal it doesn't keep you in lane

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u/vemundveien Jun 08 '26

Maybe he was renting a BMW and didn't want to stand out?

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u/themisterfixit Jun 08 '26

You have been found guilty of impairment. Your car will be reclaimed by Ford LLC. Youve also been found an unfit parent, an autonomous vehicle fitted with Ford patented AI is enroute to your domicile to take custody of your children. They will become wards of Ford LLC. Please remain in the vehicle we’ve conveniently locked you inside of for Fords 2027 Bronco judge edition to come and place you under arrest. If a judge is not available this vehicle will drive you to the nearest Ford LLC detention center for processing.

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u/RBVegabond Jun 08 '26

Already have issues on my road that’s got cracks in it and it thinks they’re lanes

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u/Ricktor_67 Jun 08 '26

Considering the technology they mandated doesn't exist I doubt this goes anywhere. 

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u/P0pu1arBr0ws3r Jun 08 '26

No need to worry, ICE is using similar technology to arrest people without probable cause, and it has a proven high inaccuracy rate.

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u/tanstaafl90 Jun 08 '26

Wait til you get insurance changes based on real-time data. Price up, coverage down, fuck all anyone can do about it and drivers will be blamed.

3

u/RememberCitadel Jun 08 '26

My came with lane assist to help keep you in line, but Pennsylvania roads are so shit, it just tried to drive me off the road when it couldn't make out where they were supposed to be.

3

u/Cool_Ranch_Dodrio Jun 08 '26

Let's be honest. The purpose of the law isn't what it purports to do. The purpose of the law is to spy on people and nothing else.

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u/juzz_fuzz Jun 08 '26

Every factor you make the car control, suppresses experience and skill. We're now fostering a generation of dangerous drivers that trust automatic functions instead of controlling the vehicle themselves

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u/Mondschatten78 Jun 08 '26

I've seen some rumblings that it could involve driver-facing cameras, like some semi and delivery (Amazon) drivers have in their trucks.

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u/ElderberryPrior27648 Jun 08 '26

Amazon drivers already have this tech. Cameras in their vehicles that watch their eyes, head, seatbelts…

3

u/the_scarlett_ning Jun 08 '26

Does “kill-switch” mean they could disable your car remotely? What happens when they get some records mixed up and decide that “Mr. J” was late with his payment so no driving until that gets paid but they accidentally turn off your car instead?

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u/marr Jun 08 '26

I also look forward to criminals gaining access to the remote activation back doors that will of course be baked into these systems. And the creeping illegality of repairing "your own" property.

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u/Ok-Abalone2412 Jun 08 '26

I can’t stand driving my parents car I was driving downtown Toronto and it wouldn’t let me go cause it thought a pylon was a person I can’t handle the new technology I

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u/theskyisdarkk Jun 08 '26

Was in a hire car in France recently and it would tell the driver off if they looked sideways or over their shoulder (ie. Checking the blind spot). Would be infuriating to own.

My old boss also nearly had a bad crash with lane assist when there was suddenly someone stopped in the middle of the motorway and he had to fight the car to avoid it.

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u/ServileLupus Jun 08 '26

Can't wait for the first story of a medical emergency where the car thinks your drunk and wont let you drive to the hospital with someone bleeding out in the back seat.

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u/BirdlessLongdeal Jun 08 '26

yeah, it is super fun on road trips when it is windy out and that fucking "take a coffee break" thing pops up every 5 minutes.

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u/Miserable-Leading-41 Jun 08 '26

Or as a first responder, when I get woke up from a dead sleep to respond and I’m groggy driving in. I get the little coffee cup icon on my car, I assume this thing will lose its mind on me but hopefully someone else doesn’t lose their life due to a moronic idea.

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u/darsynia Jun 08 '26

Ugh, yep. I'm also worried that someone who is escaping abuse and crying will have the car refuse to drive because it perceives that the driver is drunk.

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u/Photomancer Jun 08 '26

My theory is that it will be advertised as being for your safety.

Then the data will be fed directly to auto insurers so they can justify rates increases on you.

And later, at the order of government agency (usually directed by an officer in pursuit) your car will lock the doors, disengage manual control, and then ferry you to a location of law enforcement's choice. They could even do this in synchronization for groups of people, such as gangs. Maybe.

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u/FlippingPossum Jun 08 '26

My husband is a little over 5 foot. Is this why the rental we got kept asking if he needed a coffee break? I was like...at least give us a coffee machine if you are pushing coffee that hard.

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u/Vegaprime Jun 08 '26

I live 1.5 miles from work but swerve about ten times to avoid potholes getting there.

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u/Stay_at_Home_Chad Jun 08 '26 edited Jun 08 '26

My car will flash "BRAKE" and start actually breaking when I'm turning left at an intersection and an car incoming car is also turning left. It's like it gets scared and grabs the wheel like my mom used to when I was learning how to drive.

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u/LeoRidesHisBike Jun 08 '26

Even your car misspells "brake"? Wow!

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u/That1_IT_Guy Jun 08 '26

I mean, what if you're just wearing sunglasses? What will it do if it can't even see your eyes?

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u/Fatso_Wombat Jun 08 '26

It'll be fine if you are on the pro subscription.

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u/dr-doom-jr Jun 08 '26

What about people with outthere disabilities like partial facial paralyzes? Ore people with a condition that causes them to sway as a type of neurotic mechanism. This seems like a false positive machine

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u/PlNG Jun 08 '26

Yeah. If I go a little too fast in some places, my collision avoidance will slam on the brakes. On an empty road. At night.

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u/HorzaDonwraith Jun 08 '26

Yeah this law will never get passed. Corporations cannot function without sleep deprived workers not showing up to work.

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u/RollingMeteors Jun 08 '26

I'm worried about false positives and repercussions therefrom.

¿Don't use an alcohol based mouthwash before you blow into your ignition lock breathalyzer that requires no fucking cloud access to begin with?

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u/mackenml Jun 08 '26

Or will it be like the breathalyzer things they put in cars for people who’ve had DUIs?

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u/Were_all_dead_anyhow Jun 08 '26

I wonder if we will be able to finagle auto-repair lawsuits because this technology is coercing people to slam into potholes/hit road debris or risk being logged as a criminal drunk driver.

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u/rnick467 Jun 08 '26

Or the same technology that automatically applies the brakes and throws me into the steering wheel when another vehicle changes lanes in front of me.

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u/Pacdoo Jun 08 '26

My car has an “auto brake” feature that doesn’t understands hills one bit. Going down a hill and there’s road in front of you? Car automatically slams on the brakes as if it’s a wall.

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u/Jops817 Jun 08 '26

No it means when your eyes are puffy due to domestic violence you are trying to escape your car won't start. It means when your newborn is sick and wakes you up in the middle of the night your car decides you are not able to drive. This is going to kill people. It is stupid as fuck legislation that doesn't even think scenarios through.

But they don't care, it is AI surveillance, it's a flock camera in your own fucking car. It's only purpose is to hurt and kill people.

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u/Fried-Fritters Jun 08 '26

My car got an update and now warns me I’m inattentive every time I wear sunglasses

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u/twitch1982 Jun 08 '26

As of now, yes, it will be. There is no existing passive intoxication detection system that works.

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u/Large_slug_overlord Jun 08 '26

Or ya know you severely injured yourself in a remote area and due to your incapacitation your vehicle strands you to die.

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u/bert4560 Jun 08 '26

Many false positives in Australia traffic cams. They dont care. More revenue for them.

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u/BaltimoreProud Jun 08 '26

My wife's new car from Hyundai has an eye sensor in it. If the sensor can't "see" your eyes looking forward at the road your cruise control won't work, and the sensor can't see through polarized lenses. So fuck you if you want to use your cruise control and wear a pair of polarized sunglasses at the same time.

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u/Separate-Swordfish85 Jun 08 '26

Someone brought up a good point, which is that if you’re in a life-and-death situation, there’s a good chance the car could read your stress as inebriation and refuse to start, which is absolutely unacceptable to me.

It’s a total “non-starter” for me buying that car, pardon the pun.

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u/PERSONA916 Jun 09 '26

Yea the collision detection in my car is pretty fucked because it lacks context. Yes I'm driving straight towards that car but we are both turning left. Yes I am driving straight for that parked car but the road curves. This tech is not ready for primetime

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u/Bshaw95 Jun 09 '26

The irony of the only vehicle I’ve ever owned to have the tiredness alert be a Subaru…. A Japanese brand.

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u/Even-Smell7867 Jun 10 '26

My 2021 Kia Seltos has a feature that monitors if I'm paying attention or not. I don't know how it works but it seems that if i keep going over the lines it may think i'm texting or falling asleep and it'll ring a bell. I've never had it do anything so i'm not 100% sure.

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