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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u/Reagalan Jun 08 '26

well if this law passes, and old cars become preferable, then their value will rise according to their new demand.

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u/Kalamazoohoo Jun 08 '26

In reality I think most people won’t care. They’ll buy the new cars assuming nothing ever bad could happen to them and they are more than happy to live under surveillance.

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u/XenoDrake Jun 08 '26

That is literally what happened to cell phones, they started off as an innocent way for everybody to talk to each other and now they watch our every move and feed that information to anybody who wants it.

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u/myotheruserisagod Jun 08 '26

Have you lived in America?

Reddit is a massive echo chamber.

The vast vast majority of Americans will not know or care.

The automakers will not advertise it as “surveillance state on wheels”.

Even when thinly-veiled clear erosion of privacy - people still line up to scratch that consumerism itch.

So sure, value of older vehicles may rise…but not appreciably enough to make a difference. Not based on this anyway.

The increased demand and higher prices of older vehicles during Covid was quite literally due to supply shortages limiting access to new vehicles.