"Distraction" tracking systems now required in EU cars

[digdeeper]

https://web.archive.org/web/20260707221505/https://allaboutcookies.org/eu-mandatory-distracted-driver-system

Look away from the road for more than 3.5 seconds at highway speed, or six seconds at slower speeds, and the car warns you with some combination of a light, a sound, or a vibration.

Training the human like a dog...

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This is obviously for safety or are you pro drunk driving? And who cares where that data goes, it's not like a big automotive manufacturers like VW would be unable to manage these amounts of data and accidentally leak data for 800 000 of their vehicles (I would post a link to some article here, but not sure what the rules on posting links are here).

But seriously, this is ridiculous, I don't think cars were ever meant to be stuffed full of this electrical and software crap. Of course you need headlights, a way to start the engine, power steering etc. but I think modern cars are taking this way too far for spying purposes while using safety as an excuse. Or is the government implying that driving school is not a useful way to educate people on driving safely long term?

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[TechLord]

This will be used to punish people for daring to look at their phones at long red traffic lights while the car is standing still, so people have to waste that minute staring at the parade of cars and bicycles crossing by.

I agree phones should never be used while the car is moving, but while it is standing still?

In Germany, there are still no countdown displays for traffic lights that tells people how long to wait.

[moeloli]

If they wanted to prevent people from looking at TikToks while driving, requiring cars to have cell network jammers would be a more "based" solution...

[Grainy]

I don't trust all modern car manufacturers to do it right, considering all the UX and update horror stories, like moving the hazard lights button two menus deep in an update and not even warning the driver. Or those speed tracking devices for insurance companies in America that just caused drivers to drive more unsafely.

I've been in a rideshare where the (rascist?) car kept beeping at the driver to keep his eyes on the road the entire trip, he had them as wide as he could and didn't budge from looking at the road. He was asian.

I've been in a car where the driver was at a standstill in a carpark, looking around at the roads to see where to go and which direction she was supposed to drive in, the car just kept screaming to look at the road.

Frequent false positives are also just going to desensitise drivers to even paying attention to them at all.

This will be used to punish people for daring to look at their phones at long red traffic lights while the car is standing still

That is super illegal here anyway, and a lot of money is made fining people. But they catch them with topdown cameras attached to the traffic lights, they don't need in-car trackers to do that.

[TechLord]

But they catch them with topdown cameras attached to the traffic lights, they don't need in-car trackers to do that.

Which country does this? I have seen topdown cameras rarely in Germany.

[mocheryl]

I hate this new trend where car manufacturers mount a huge touchscreen display in the middle of the dashboard and relocate all buttons and switches from the steering wheel to it. Who thought this was a good idea? Try to fiddle through the menu just to turn on the windshield wipers when you’re speeding on the highway and it suddenly starts to pour rain. I drove a Tesla a couple of times and I can’t believe how close I came to crashing it because of this. It’s a good thing the proximity sensor is connected to the brake system.

So how does this anti-distraction system come into play in this case? Is it going to zap me every time when I’m trying to adjust the temperature of the AC on one of those ridicules screens?

[laki]

How long until they ban the used car market - obviously if they want these systems in place they can't afford to have the majority of people still driving older cars without it.

Its ridiculous how you can now watch a movie in your car or get distracted by one of these big centre screens, but that's fine and totally based according to the EU, as long as you have cameras and other stuff monitoring you to make you behave like a good goy.