About a US law requiring new cars to detect impaired drivers and limit driving.
Has this happened?
Yes 25 (20%)Not sure 56 (44%)No 46 (36%)
Votes cast 1–2 October 2026: 100,590 votes from 9,694 people.
Hacker News has set AI a lot of challenges over the years. Which ones has it met?
About a US law requiring new cars to detect impaired drivers and limit driving.
Votes cast 1–2 October 2026: 100,590 votes from 9,694 people.
"passively monitor the performance of a driver of a motor vehicle to accurately identify whether that driver may be impaired; and prevent or limit motor vehicle operation if an impairment is detected"
The second part of this is straightforward but can be disabled by the car's owner. The first part may well be completely impossible.
We can't even instruct humans in how to definitively determine impairment except in limited circumstances, and even then it's only a diagnostic test that has to be confirmed by an invasive medical test.
I don't like this law at all or how it made its way into the bill so quietly... but in reality this isn't going to happen in practical terms for a few decades, because it's going to take that long to develop an AI that can do this.