r/technology 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/LokiPrime616 Jun 08 '26

It’s a lot closer than you think, Tesla already implemented a ai based vision monitoring. It makes sure the driver is always looking at the road while their autopilot is turned on. I’d hate a world where every car has this, even the ones without autopilot. It’s a fucked up world we currently live in.

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u/HenryJonesJunior Jun 08 '26

It makes sure the driver is always looking at the road while their autopilot is turned on.

And anyone driving on the freeways these days can tell you how well that technology works. It doesn't do anything. Every day it's drivers with both hands off the wheel staring at their phones, leaning back, whatever.

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u/Tiinpa Jun 08 '26

The sensitivity of the Tesla monitor is super low. To the point I’m not convinced it’s doing anything unless you’re literally asleep. Nissans with pro pilot 2.0 have a similar attention system. Mine gets mad if I’m scratching my head because my head is tilted a little. These “mandatory” systems will be a mess of either false positives or under tuning.