Omeleto released a video in March 2021 that describes a utopian society where citizens are programmed to spy on each other. It is brilliant and disturbing. One vignette depicts a man blowing desperately into a breathalyzer device telescoping from the steering wheel of his vehicle to start it.
The developers were prescient. Later that same month, President Biden introduced the $2.3 trillion American Jobs Plan, which eventually morphed into the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (“Act”) that was signed into law several months later. The Act includes several clauses onerous to motorists, including Section 24220, Advanced Impaired Driving Technology, which has caused much consternation, and rightfully so.
Section 24220 requires the US Transportation Secretary to issue a final rule to the federal motor vehicle safety standard mandating that passenger vehicles manufactured after its effective date—sometime after 2026—be equipped with technology that can “passively monitor the performance of a driver . . . to accurately identify whether that driver may be impaired and [to] prevent or limit motor vehicle operation if an impairment is detected.”
There is no indication, as has been widely rumored, that the technology will include an engine kill switch accessible to authorized third parties, such as the police. Section 24205 of the Act does require the introduction of an automatic shutoff switch for the 2025 model year that would prevent internal-combustion-engine powered vehicles from idling too long. It may be that Sections 24205 and 24220 were conflated into the remote-controlled kill-switch story.
There is still plenty to be concerned about with the implementation of advanced impaired driving technology. Breathalyzers have long been unreliable. Other methodologies can also produce significant false-positive rates. When we get in our cars, often it is for a timely purpose, and even for emergencies. Being stranded by a faulty reading could have severe safety consequences. The NMA’s advocacy presence on Capitol Hill on matters such as this is as important now as ever.
To view the Omeleto satirical video about Utopia, click on the image below. You’ll see, at the 1:30 mark, that satire and Section 24220-based reality start to become uncomfortably close.
A man lives in a society where citizens police each other . . .
