Now this one sounds ok on the surface or the intent is good but as they say, “the road to hell is paved with good intention.” Inside the Infrastructure bill, is a mandate intended to stop drunk driving altogether. See that doesn’t sound bad. But the problem lies in the how. The mandate suggests every car have monitoring devices so that the car would pull over or not start if it detected alcohol. The mandate suggests facial recognition software in every vehicle… And that’s where you lose me.
“When the president signs the infrastructure bill into law, a personal choice to drive drunk may just take a back seat. It would put drunk-driving prevention technology in all new vehicles, as standard as seatbelts or airbags, said Otte.”
“So how does it work? In a few ways: automakers would be required to either install sensors that would passively monitor a driver’s breath, eye-movements or unusual driving activity, or they would need to measure their sweat.
“Alcohol detection technology has sensors, for example, in the start button or the steering wheel that would measure the amount of alcohol in a person’s sweat,” said Otte.”
“But some experts are pointing to privacy concerns over having drivers monitored by their own cars – and who would have access to that information.
Lee Tien, a senior staff attorney for digital rights group the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told MarketWatch, “You want to be really careful that any system of technology that is basically driving surveillance doesn’t go beyond what it needs to be.”
Tien added, “Companies and the government sort of have aligned interests, and they’re kind of not aligned with consumers.”
This is the path to losing any sense of privacy one has while driving their own vehicle. Big brother doesn’t belong in my car. I have nothing to hide, but I think it’s easy to see where this would go. This could lead to infringement on freedom of speech and ruin any sense of privacy. Tell me what you think in the comments. Do you want your car to monitor you?
Leave a Comment