ELLIS COUNTY – Jake Ellzey is back in the news again with some residents in an uproar, this time because he voted with 56 other lawmakers to keep the spyware in vehicles.
This month lawmakers rejected an amendment that would have defunded a federal mandate requiring all new passenger vehicles manufactured after 2026 to include advanced drunk and impaired driving prevention technology.
“Privacy advocates warn this biometric data could also be shared with insurance companies, law enforcement, or sold to data brokers” according to a report.
The technology is often known as a “kill switch” and it is billed as being able to detect driver impairment and remotely disable the vehicle.
However, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has warned Congress that the technology may not be ready.
Having your vehicle stop or slow down without driver control seems to me to be more of, or at least as dangerous as, a drunk driver. After all, no system is perfect.
It was also noted the administration has not released the list of approved technologies that will be part of the rules to implement the law.
The vote was 164–268 with 160 Republicans and four democrats approving the big brother scheme.
There were 57 Republicans and 211 Democrats voting against.
The amendment was introduced by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), who was attempting to prohibit federal funding for Section 24220 of the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which mandates that NHTSA develop safety standards for passive driver monitoring and impairment detection systems.
Supporters of the bill argued it would reduce drunk driving fatalities and improve highway safety.
Opponents of the bill, including Massie and other Republicans, warn it could enable government surveillance and remote control of private vehicles, raising Fourth Amendment and privacy concerns.
One report indicated “These systems do not just observe, they collect data. That includes how you drive, how often you appear distracted, and how the system interprets your behavior over time. The question drivers keep asking is simple: where does that data go?”
Implementation standards are to be set by NHTSA, with enforcement starting in 2027.
While Ellzey does not seem to be representing his constituents in Congress according to comments from both sides of the aisle, he recently pulled off the GOP three-way race in the March primary since such a small group of Republicans bothered to vote.