Congress votes not to repeal mandatory kill switch, which isn’t really a kill switch – Jalopnik

We probably all agree that drunk driving is bad. But should your car be able to turn itself off if it decides you’re not happy with the way you’re driving? Last week, Congress voted not to repeal a law requiring cars to do just that, the report said NewsNation. The internet is now in turmoil about how there will be a ‘kill switch’ in every car that the government can activate when they want to stop your car. That part isn’t true, as we discussed before, but the truth is still somewhat alarming.

The law in question is the HALT Drunk Driving Acta well-intentioned law supported by Mothers Against Drunk Driving. Signed into law as part of the Biden administration’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021, the law requires cars to determine whether the person behind the wheel is too impaired to drive in one of three ways:

(A) monitors a director’s performance to identify a director’s limitations;
(B) a system that passively detects a blood alcohol level equal to or greater than 0.08 blood alcohol level; or
(C) a similar system that detects damage and prevents or limits the operation of the vehicle;

The “passive system” requirement bans existing ignition protection devices for breathalysers, an active system that no one really wants to use anyway. The Driver alcohol detection system for safety is a system that could work for this purpose, scanning the air you naturally exhale or your skin via the engine start button to determine blood alcohol levels. Unfortunately, the DADSS website hasn’t been updated in years and still promises implementation in consumer vehicles by 2024. So the onus falls on the vehicle itself to monitor the driver’s performance before and/or while driving, likely using existing technology such as cameras, sensors and other telemetry.

This issue inspired Rep. Thomas Massie to introduce an amendment to nullify this law. “Your dashboard shouldn’t be judge, jury and executioner,” Massie said an X post. He points out that there is no recourse once your car determines that you are impaired, whether justified or not, and that there is no clear method to regain access to your own car once it is disabled. He also pointed out that NHTSA has passed the 2024 deadline and still has not submitted a draft proposal on how exactly this should be implemented, but that the law should go into effect this year.

Rep. Scott Perry, who supported Massie’s amendment, added that if your car can turn itself off because it thinks you’re drunk, it’s not a technological leap to give the government the ability to turn it off remotely by pouring gasoline on the kill switch.

The intentions of the law are good. Drunk drivers need to be kept off the road, and the methods prescribed are intriguing, as long as they work properly. But the technology to effectively implement the law does not appear to exist yet, and the legally mandated timeline to implement this technology in cars this year may not be feasible.