Sponsors (2)
The bill aims to improve vehicle interface safety and speed agency action by commissioning studies, clarifying definitions, and streamlining regulatory paths—potentially reducing crashes—but does so at a taxpayer and administrative cost while raising privacy, regulatory‑certainty, and implementation‑delay risks if recommendations are not rapidly or robustly adopted.
Drivers, passengers, and other road users could see fewer severe injuries and fatalities if agencies adopt study-based, evidence-backed recommendations to reduce crash risk from touchscreens and driver-facing tech.
Policymakers, regulators, and safety agencies gain improved crash and occupant‑use data and evidence-based analyses to craft targeted safety rules and prioritize interventions.
The bill creates a clearer, faster regulatory pathway—by categorizing recommendations into items that can be done under existing authority and by directing some deference to the Transportation Secretary—helping agencies act more quickly and reducing litigation delays.
The required study and reporting process (multi-step timeline and potential nonbinding recommendations) could delay or fail to produce concrete regulatory changes, leaving distraction risks unaddressed for many drivers.
Collecting more detailed device- and occupant-use data raises privacy concerns for drivers if data collection methods are intrusive or not adequately protected.
Preparing the study, additional reporting, and any new data collection will require DOT/NHTSA staff time and funding, creating costs for taxpayers and potentially diverting resources from other agency priorities.
Based on analysis of 5 sections of legislative text.
Directs a National Academies study on how driver-controlled tech (especially touchscreens and smartphone integration) affects severe crashes and requires categorized recommendations to reduce fatalities and improve crash data.
Introduced May 13, 2025 by Kevin Mullin · Last progress May 13, 2025
Requires the Secretary of Transportation to arrange for the National Academies to study how driver-controlled technology—particularly touch-screen systems and smartphone integration—affects severe traffic injuries and deaths to drivers, pedestrians, bicyclists, and other vulnerable road users. The Secretary must seek the study agreement within three months of enactment, use a study period that can reach back up to 10 years, publish the study within 24 months of the agreement, and deliver categorized recommendations to Congress on steps to reduce severe crashes and improve federal crash data collection. Defines key terms (like "driver-controlled technology," "touch screen-based system," and "tactile motor vehicle control"), preserves the Department's authority to issue regulations, and instructs courts to defer to reasonable agency interpretations of ambiguous terms. The measure is a directed research and reporting requirement and does not itself impose new regulatory requirements or appropriate funds.