Efforts are being made in Congress to avert the mandated kill switch technology which state aim is to detect impaired drivers enabling the government to track American vehicles.
Rep. Thomas Massie (RKY) introduced H.R. 1137, the 'No Kill Switches in Cars Act,' to repeal a 2021 Infrastructure Law provision requiring advanced drunk driving prevention technology in all new vehicles by 2026 Though not defined in statute, according to H.R. 1137, the technology would enable the federal government to track vehicles whether or not the driver is actually impaired, which critics say allows surveillance without a warrant, destroying rights to privacy, instituting unconstitutional tracking and imposing other civil rights violations.
Additionally, the bill states a kill switch can pose “frightening safety concerns” because cutting off power to a moving vehicle poses grave risks to both the driver and other cars when a driver must pull of the road suddenly, could cause drivers to be stranded, alone and vulnerable on the side of the road with a totally disabled vehicle.
Passed in the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (Section 24220), this law requires new passenger vehicles to have 'advanced impaired driving technology' by 2026.
Though the law doesn’t explicitly allow government or law enforcement to remotely shut down vehicles, it does require the car to selfdetect and disable operation.
The ‘no kill switch’ bill would repeal a requirement that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration prescribe a federal motor vehicle safety standard that requires certain passenger vehicles to be equipped with advanced drunk and impaired driving prevention technology. Currently, there is no federal motor vehicle safety standard that requires the technology.
Claims are made that the technology is a passive system to monitor a driver’s performance to identify impairment and supposedly can accurately detects whether a driver's blood alcohol concentration is equal to or greater than 0.08%. The system must also prevent or limit vehicle operation if the system determines the driver may be intoxicated or impaired.
But critics note numerous dangers. If a vehicle's kill switch is activated in high heat, the driver could be stranded without the ability to start the engine, leaving everyone in the vehicle immediately subject to extreme ambient temperatures, which could become life threatening in minutes.
Additionally, high heat can accelerate battery degradation and may even cause electrical components, like kill switches or relays, to malfunction. Once the engine is killed, there is a loss of access to air conditioning. If a kill switch activates while driving in heavy traffic, the engine will likely stall immediately, causing a loss of power steering and power braking, which could cause collisions in heavy traffic or leave the car and passengers stranded in dangerous locations and vulnerable. If a system malfunctions or incorrectly flags a driver, it could disable the engine while driving, creating a grave risk on busy highways.
Critics also argue that the complex sensor systems could misinterpret normal driving behaviors (like checking mirrors) or a driver's state as 'impaired,' triggering an unnecessary and dangerous shutdown.