[Dismas]

After several crazy incidents involving Teslas, vehicles with automated features might be forced to include features that monitor drivers. It's unlikely the legislation will be effective, as people will always find a way around these measures (i.e. weights on the steering wheel).

Three United States senators on Monday proposed legislation that would require all new cars in the United States to have driver-monitoring systems within six years. Two of the legislation's sponsors—Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.)—recently sent a letter to federal regulators expressing concern about last week's fatal Tesla crash in Texas.

It's not clear how a 2019 Tesla Model S wound up crashing into a tree at high speed in a residential neighborhood outside Houston. Police reported that neither of the vehicle's two passengers was in the driver's seat: one was in the front passenger seat, while the other was sitting in a rear seat.

The crash has drawn more attention to the long-running debate over adding driver-monitoring technology to cars. A few carmakers have already adopted robust driver-monitoring technology. Cadillac's Super Cruise driver-assistance technology, for example, uses a driver-facing camera to verify that the driver's eyes are focused on the road. Drivers can take their hands off the wheel while Super Cruise is active. But if they stop looking at the road ahead, Super Cruise will warn them and eventually disengage.

Tesla vehicles use a more rudimentary technique to measure driver engagement: a torque sensor on the steering wheel. Unfortunately, hands on the wheel are no guarantee that a driver is paying attention. Also, torque sensors are easily defeated by hanging a weight from the steering wheel.

Read More: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021...every-car/

[Boudica]

There are some good uses for driver monitoring, but I can imagine that holds a host of other new issues. Next people will be upset about their cars tracking them xD

However, from a legal perspective, I wonder if this will shift legal blame from the car manufacturers to the drivers.

[so8band]

More tech means less privacy in cars, more mechanical cars means less tech..... choose your passion lol old cars or the new stuff

[howardellis]

More technology means less secrecy in automobiles, more mechanical vehicles mean less technology.

[Dismas]

Someone was arrested twice in a row for "driving" from the back seat:
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021...back-seat/

He's insisted he feels safer in the back seat. They should probably keep him locked up for a while.

[Boudica]

Someone was arrested twice in a row for "driving" from the back seat:
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021...back-seat/

He's insisted he feels safer in the back seat. They should probably keep him locked up for a while.

Seems like the 911 calls beat natural selection on this one.

[Dismas]

Someone was arrested twice in a row for "driving" from the back seat:
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021...back-seat/

He's insisted he feels safer in the back seat. They should probably keep him locked up for a while.

Seems like the 911 calls beat natural selection on this one.

Someone's going to cut him off, and they're going to be scraping him off the pavement.

[echo_blini]

I really like electric vehicles on principal, despite my feelings about Tesla as a company, and I hope the reaction to this sort of privacy-neglecting legislative advancement leads to more DIY and open-source vehicle assembly and conversions in the electric auto world. I would rather drive than something reliant on software steering for me, but if I can't find a vehicle in the future without that feature, I would want to build something that doesn't for a number of reasons.

[laininthewired]

Someone was arrested twice in a row for "driving" from the back seat:
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021...back-seat/

He's insisted he feels safer in the back seat. They should probably keep him locked up for a while.

I bet in 20 years people will look at this and be like "They used to arrest people for that?"

[Boudica]

Someone was arrested twice in a row for "driving" from the back seat:
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021...back-seat/

He's insisted he feels safer in the back seat. They should probably keep him locked up for a while.

I bet in 20 years people will look at this and be like "They used to arrest people for that?"

I've been listening to a podcast that talks about weird and interesting facts - Often they talk about really odd things that people used to do or get in trouble for, that seem ridiculous to us now. So, I suspect you're quite right! I'm imagining a podcast in the year 2092 discussing early driverless cars the same way we talk about the Wright brothers early flights xD