Mandatory driver impairment sensors clear a funding hurdle, but are they
ready?
[February 14, 2026] By
JEFF McMURRAY
A federal law requiring impairment-detection devices inside all new cars
survived a recent push to strip its funding but remains stalled by
questions about whether the technology is ready.
Rana Abbas Taylor lost her sister, brother-in-law, nephew and two nieces
when a driver with a blood-alcohol level almost four times the legal
limit slammed into their car in January 2019 as the Michigan family
drove through Lexington, Kentucky, on the way home from a Florida
vacation.
The tragedy turned Abbas Taylor into an outspoken advocate for stopping
the more than 10,000 alcohol-related deaths each year on U.S. roads.
Lawmakers attached the Honoring Abbas Family Legacy to Terminate Drunk
Driving Act to the $1 trillion infrastructure law that then-President
Joe Biden signed in 2021.
The measure, often referred to as the Halt Drunk Driving Act,
anticipated that as early as this year, auto companies would be required
to roll out technology to “passively” detect when drivers are drunk or
impaired and prevent their cars from operating. Regulators can choose
from a range of options, including air monitors that sample the car's
interior for traces of alcohol, fingertip readers that measure a
driver's blood-alcohol level, or scanners that detect signs of
impairment in eye or head movements.
Mothers Against Drunk Driving called it the most important piece of
legislation in the organization's 45-year history. Still, implementation
has been bogged down by regulatory delays, without any clear signals
that final approval is near.
“The way we measure time is not by days or months or years. It’s by
number of lives lost,” Abbas Taylor said in an interview with The
Associated Press. “So when we hear manufacturers say, ‘We need more
time,’ or ‘The tech is not ready,’ or ‘We’re not there yet,' all we hear
is, ‘More people need to die before we’re willing to fix this.’”
The ‘kill switch’ debate
A Republican-led effort to remove the Halt Act's funding was defeated in
the U.S. House last month by a 268-164 vote. Another bill to repeal it
entirely awaits a committee vote.
Most of the opposition has stemmed from suggestions that the law would
require manufacturers to equip cars with a “kill switch". That would
essentially allow them to “be controlled by the government,” Florida
Gov. Ron DeSantis posted on the social platform X, drawing comparisons
to George Orwell's dystopian novel “1984.”
The alcohol industry has fiercely defended the law against such
arguments. Chris Swonger, president and CEO of the Distilled Spirits
Council of the United States, said it specifically requires the
technology to be passive, similar to other current safety mandates such
as seat belts and air bags.
“There is no switch, there’s no government control, there is no sharing
of data," he said. “That’s just an unfortunate scare tactic.”
But Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican who authored the defunding
effort, said even the dashboard acting on its own could serve as “your
judge, your jury, and your executioner." He cited the example of a
mother who swerves in a snowstorm to avoid hitting a neighbor's pet,
only for her car to deactivate itself because it determines she's
impaired.
[to top of second column] |
Madiha Maria, left, cries with Rana Abbas Taylor of Northville,
Mich., who lost her only sister, brother-in-law and their three
children to a drunk driver, during a candlelight vigil for people
who had family members killed by drunk drivers, Tuesday, Nov. 19,
2024, on the National Mall, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn
Martin, File)
 The Alliance for Automotive
Innovation, a trade association for U.S. automakers, made a similar
case to regulators in 2024, arguing that much more research was
needed before mandating the technology.
“Even if 1 in 10,000 trips were expected to experience a false
positive, this could result in thousands of unimpaired drivers
encountering problems that prevent them from driving each day,” the
Alliance wrote.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which is
establishing the rules to implement the Halt Act, told the AP in an
email that it's still “assessing developing technologies for
potential deployment” and expects to report back to Congress soon.
Even supporters predict the agency will push the decision at least
into 2027, and auto companies still would have another two to three
years to install it.
Vouching for the tech's reliability
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, a research arm funded by
auto insurers, recently announced that impairment detection and
other technology aimed at curbing risky driving behavior would soon
be included as criteria for a vehicle to earn one of its top safety
awards.
Many states already have laws requiring breath-activated ignition
interlock systems to be installed on the cars of DUI offenders. The
system ultimately chosen under the Halt Act is intended to detect
impairment beyond just drunk driving.
“We’re still sort of pushing back against this narrative that the
technology doesn’t exist,” said Stephanie Manning, chief government
affairs officer at MADD. “We’ve seen many different types of
technology that can solve drunk driving. We just haven’t seen it
deployed and implemented the way that we would like.”
To accelerate the timeline, one bill advancing in Congress would
offer a $45 million prize to whoever can produce and deploy the
first consumer-ready piece of technology. Abbas Taylor, whose family
members were killed in the Kentucky crash, said efforts like that
give her hope.
“When you've lost everything, there is nothing that will stop you
from fighting for what is right,” she said. “But we see the writing
on the wall, and we know it’s only a matter of time before this
happens.”
All contents © copyright 2026 Associated Press. All rights reserved
 |
