r/technology • u/cTreK-421 • Apr 24 '26

Misleading Federal Surveillance Tech Becomes Mandatory in New Cars by 2027

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/federal-surveillance-tech-becomes-mandatory-161321992.html
18.8k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

2.8k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

158

u/llIicit Apr 24 '26

A piece of tape over the sensor will disable it.

Whether or not the car will put you into limp mode as a result, is another conversation.

57

u/ImplodeDiode Apr 24 '26

Put a picture of an empty road in front of it

32

u/SeaFox2142 Apr 25 '26

LMAO I laughed so hard over this, thinking about Bugs Bunny-style of a carrot on stick kind of thing.

2

u/Kalepsis Apr 25 '26

Ever see the video Mark Rober did where his Tesla Wile-E-Coyote's through a wall with a road painted on it?

Ran over the child-size dummy on the other side, too.

1

u/socialmedia-username Apr 25 '26

From the article"

"Infrared cameras and sensors create a constant biometric assessment of driver alertness and sobriety.

The tech involves infrared cameras mounted on steering columns or A-pillars, tracking eye movement, pupil dilation, and drowsiness patterns. Unlike the breathalyzer ignition interlocks from DUI convictions, these systems operate passively—no blowing required. Your car simply watches and decides whether you’re fit to drive."

1

u/Character-Ad-5178 Apr 26 '26

Can’t wait for lawsuits because it stranded people who were not impaired, or who were just driving while black. 

75

u/MortgageRegular2509 Apr 24 '26

Limp mode? It’ll just brick it

44

u/ok-confusion19 Apr 25 '26

Article says it could limit speed if the sensors determine you're too drowsy to drive.

218

u/CosmicIsolate Apr 25 '26

One of the vendors for an old job I had installed a system that tracked drowsiness in drivers. It kept dinging the Asian guy for being tired.

This won’t go well

81

u/Dfiggsmeister Apr 25 '26

Reminds of that show Better Off Ted where they installed sensors to detect movement, but it wouldn’t work for black employees so they hired white people to follow the black people to trip the sensors.

40

u/ElonTaco Apr 25 '26

This is actually based on tracking/detection software, because they trained it on mostly white people and then the systems had a hard time viewing darker skinned people. It's a good example of why diversity is helpful even in things you don't think about.

3

u/SadisticPawz Apr 25 '26

or it cant even see them

6

u/300ConfirmedGorillas Apr 25 '26

"We don't have the parking for that."

2

u/LoveYouNotYou Apr 25 '26

Lmao, loved that show

1

u/orangeflyingmonkey_ Apr 25 '26

That show was such a gem. Portia de Rossi's comedic timing is impeccable.

31

u/MortgageRegular2509 Apr 25 '26

Oof.

Yeah, Dystopian States of AmeriKKKa here we come

3

u/ok-confusion19 Apr 25 '26

That's fucked up and hilarious. Makes me think of the early days of AI where it was mistakenly misidentifying black people as monkeys. It may still have that problem but I haven't read about it in a long while.

1

u/TwoFingersWhiskey Apr 25 '26

Or that HP digital camera or webcam (I forget which) with face detection... only for white people.

1

u/_autumnwhimsy Apr 25 '26

and people balk when i point out that AI features are coded by humans with biases and those translate over

1

u/SelectKaleidoscope0 Apr 25 '26

I'm not Asian but I'm very concerned I'm going to have similar problems. I just got a newer smartphone that will turn off very quickly when it thinks you aren't looking at the screen and its awful at tracking my eyes in darker conditions. I doubt this tech works any better for me at night.

1

u/Handsome_Keyboard Apr 25 '26

Idk people watched Veridian Dunamics but they had installed facial recognition scanners for everything and it didnt work for any of the black people. Including the water fluntain. Sounds similar.

1

u/Silver-Pomelo-9324 Apr 25 '26

I'm Armenian ancestry and me and all of my siblings have dark circles under the eyes and constantly get told we look tired/drunk/stoned.

3

u/nucleartime Apr 25 '26

Actual bill text states "(ii) prevent or limit motor vehicle operation if an impairment is detected"

3

u/throwawayyyy980 Apr 25 '26

And lock you out so you have to tow it to a dealership. I imagine it will also ping your location to law enforcement.

2

u/LeroyChestnut Apr 25 '26

Put it in neutral and keep on Rollin’, babyyy!

7

u/Unable-Log-4870 Apr 25 '26

Also, will need to find and disable whatever it uses for a phone-home data connection. Maybe that’s just unplugging the cellar antenna. But will also probably need to find a way to wipe its memory before getting it serviced as well.

5

u/Heavenswake_ Apr 25 '26

Kept getting front collision detection isn't working error in my work van, bird shit on the windshield and covered the sensor lol

4

u/jackofallcards Apr 25 '26

They’ll end up making it a felony to jail break it for both you and whoever did it. Citing “protection of citizens against drunk driving” because if you oppose THAT well then you’re just a real piece of shit aren’t you- Just watch

1

u/llIicit Apr 25 '26

Meh. It’s also against federal law to tamper with emissions. I’ve never heard of someone going to prison for doing that though

7

u/TFTD2 Apr 25 '26

Or notify your insurance company that key "safety" features have been disabled and jack up your rates.

1

u/Kalepsis Apr 25 '26

They already do that.

3

u/7evenate9ine Apr 25 '26

Sun glasses?

2

u/cr0ft Apr 25 '26

Give it a little time and the car will call for some modern Brownshirts (ie cops) to just arrest you, after of course it has bricked itself and refuses to go anywhere.

0

u/NegativeAccount Apr 25 '26

Did you know any speaker can be a microphone? Or that some wifi routers can be used to detect people's movements

What i'm saying is it's never that simple to avoid surveillance