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by vetrom 102 days ago
There's a ton of bad reporting here, because the publications, or writers, are lazy about sourcing their reporting.

In this case, there is a kernel of truth: The 2021-2022 "Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act" (https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/3684...) directs NHTSA to develop an in-vehicle driver system to detect some definition of impaired driving.

In particular, "SEC. 24220" (searchable by that string in the above bill text.) directs NHTSA to either write and publish a rule implementing such, or make a yearly report to Congress as to why said technology is not implementable.

This is the 2026 report: https://www.nhtsa.gov/sites/nhtsa.gov/files/2026-03/Report-t...

In essence, they state that while they have prototypes, the technology is not yet sufficient. There's nothing in a proposed or final rule yet, to the best of my knowledge.

Personally, I'm wary of this type of rule-making, as it essentially remains 'hidden' from public comment until the notices of final rule-making, making it in my eyes an end-run around the Administrative Procedure Act. I don't expect that to be a very widely held position though.

(Edit: I linked the 2023 report first, not the 2026 one. Whoopsy.)

2 comments

Apparently nobody bothered to stop and consider how little sense this article makes, if the comments are any indication.
If I'm reading that correctly, they intend to do this as soon as it become possible. Not very reassuring.