Your Next Car May Be Watching You - And That’s Now the Law in Europe

Starting July 7, every new car and van sold in the European Union must come equipped with a camera that tracks the driver’s eyes and head movements. The mandate is part of the EU’s updated General Safety Regulation, and it turns what was once an optional safety feature into a legal requirement across roughly 15 million vehicles a year.

The system, called Advanced Driver Distraction Warning, or ADDW, uses infrared sensors built into the dashboard to monitor where the driver is looking. 5 seconds at highway speeds, or for more than 6 seconds at lower speeds, the car sounds an alarm.

American drivers shouldn’t assume this is just a European issue. S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is already working toward a similar mandate, with a proposed rollout by 2027. The agency estimates that driver distraction plays a role in 16% of all fatal crashes and 21% of injury accidents in the United States.

European regulators calculate that the new system could save 25,000 lives by 2038. But the push for safety has also raised serious questions about privacy and data security. The EU’s own regulations say the system should operate as a closed loop, meaning the data stays in the car.

Yet Volvo recently admitted that its driver-monitoring system sends real-time data to external cloud servers, a direct contradiction of those rules.

Privacy advocates warn that without independent audits, there’s no way to guarantee manufacturers are following the guidelines. That concern is amplified by past behavior: automakers like GM, Hyundai, and Kia have been caught collecting driving data and selling it to data brokers, who then sell it to insurance companies.

Meanwhile, early reviews of the ADDW system have flagged frequent false alarms, the camera sometimes mistakes a normal blink or head turn for drowsiness. And critics worry that the added hardware will push new car prices even higher. For now, the system is mandatory in Europe, and it’s coming to America soon.

The question is whether regulators will enforce the privacy rules as strictly as they enforce the safety ones.