By Lauren Fix
NHTSA (National Highway Transportation and Safety Administration) wants your feedback on its mandated ‘kill switches’ coming to all vehicles in 2026. We covered a story regarding the Biden-approved 2021 infrastructure bill that holds Section 24220 regarding a requirement for automakers to begin including a “vehicle kill switch” within the operating software of new cars that’s capable of disabling a vehicle from operating if it detects driver impairment.
The system is described in the bill as “advanced drunk and impaired driving prevention technology,” the measure is positioned as a safety tool to help prevent drunk driving. By 2026, the kill switch is be mandated on every new car sold in the United States.
Really?
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has published its preliminary report on the mandate, laying out the challenges facing its implementation.
NHTSA is seeking feedback from the public on the issue. According to The Washington Post, the agency is curious to learn if the public will accept the potential for false positives that could prevent sober drivers from operating a vehicle. Just imagine an emergency, but you can’t do anything because your car won’t start due to a false positive. Or any other situation for that matter, we’re sure your boss would understand if you called in saying you won’t make it to work because your car’s “prevention technology” had a false positive. Or any other urgent emergency with life threatening implications.
Even if the system is 99.9 percent accurate, that could still amount to a million false positives a day, which is something all of us will have to deal with if this system is implemented.
The NHTSA also wants to know how the government should educate the public about technology-related privacy concerns. The concerns include listening to you in your car; tracking your eyes; (they’re already doing through the Gentex system and many other similar systems) as well as tracking your driving inputs including steering, location, gas and brake pedal. More sensors mean more data collection, posing further privacy concerns.
The Automotive Coalition for Traffic Safety aims to have a working drunk-driver detector by the end of 2025, and automakers will have to figure out how to install it in new cars even as the agency notes the system could increase costs and complexity, which will undoubtedly be passed onto the consumer. Great, cars will be even more expensive.
Be sure to make your voice heard regarding this new proposal at regulations.gov by searching for the docket number, NHTSA-2022-0079, and follow the instructions once it’s been published to the federal register. You can also mail or fax your comments to the US Department of Transportation.
People are infuriated about this rule that Rep. Thomas Massie has tried to strip from the bill. Now is your chance. Speak up and let them know that this is a very bad idea, and it puts lives at risk. Let’s bury them with comments, emails, and voice messages, and let them know how you feel.
Lauren Fix, The Car Coach®, is a nationally recognized automotive expert, analyst, author, and television host. A trusted car expert, Lauren provides an insider’s perspective on a wide range of automotive topics and aspects, energy, industry, consumer news, and safety issues.
Lauren is the CEO of Automotive Aspects and the Editor-in-Chief of Car Coach Reports, a global automotive news outlet. She is an automotive contributor to national and local television news shows, including Fox News, Fox Business, CNN International, The Weather Channel, Inside Edition, Local Now News, Community Digital News, and more. Lauren also co-hosts a regular show on ABC.com with Paul Brian called “His Turn – Her Turn” and hosts regular radio segments on USA Radio – DayBreak.
Lauren is honored to be inducted into the Women’s Transportation Hall of Fame and a Board Member of the Buffalo Motorcar Museum and Juror / President for the North American Car, Utility & Truck of the Year Awards.
Check her out on Twitter and Instagram @LaurenFix.
Although this is presented as a means of reducing drunk driving accidents (a laudable objective), I completely oppose its implementation.
It takes no imagination to see how powerful actors can misuse the power this creates.
Our government has demonstrated time and again the willingness to stretch a well-intended regulation far beyond its original intent. There is no denying this fact.
Anything electronic is, by definition, hackable. If they are determined to do so, criminal hackers or adversary government hackers (think the most recent Chinese cyber-attack) can exploit it if/when they see a “need”.
Privacy is NOT a dirty word! This technology must not be implemented.
I am totally against the “Kill Switch” proposal. The result of this mandate would be overwhelmingly negative. Like most other mandates and laws of this nature, it is meant only to control the population and has very little to do with actual safety. No one is fooled. “It” always starts with the idea of safety then quickly turns to heavy-handed mandates and loss of freedom. This mandate in particular would cost more lives than it would save.
I am not convinced that the NHSTA is actually concerned about public thoughts and comments. It wishes only to present the narrative that it does care. NHSTA will do what it wants to do in the end. Mandatory kill switches is another very bad idea for this or any country.
No kill switch should be allowed! I view this as violation of my Constitutional Rights. Vehicle Kill Switches is clearly government overreach!