Driver Technology and Pedestrian Safety Act of 2025

This bill tells the U.S. Department of Transportation to hire the National Academies to study how car touch screens and other driver-controlled tech affect serious crashes and deaths, including for pedestrians, cyclists, and other vulnerable road users. The study must look at how common these systems are, how replacing physical knobs and switches with screens changes driver distraction, and how design choices like brightness and size affect safety. It also compares the risks of using a car’s touch screen versus using a smartphone while driving, and considers factors like time of day, traffic, and weather. The goal is to find changes that could reduce severe injuries and fatalities.

Within 24 months of starting the agreement, DOT must publish a public report and then, within 2 more months, send safety recommendations to Congress. These can include steps to cut crashes and to improve federal crash data systems so they better track touch screen and smartphone use while driving. Recommendations must be grouped by what agencies can do now versus what would need new laws. This bill does not set new rules right away, and it does not delay any regulations already required by law. It also defines terms like “tactile controls” (knobs and switches) and “touch screen-based system” to keep the study clear.

Key points

• Who is affected: Drivers, pedestrians, cyclists, auto makers, and safety agencies.
• What changes: A national study of in-car screens and other controls; a public report; safety recommendations; possible updates to federal crash data systems (like FARS, NOPUS, and MMUCC) to track screen and smartphone use while driving.
• When: DOT seeks the study agreement within 3 months; the report is due within 24 months after that; recommendations follow within 2 months. The study looks at data from a period that begins no later than 10 years before the agreement is made.
• What it doesn’t do now: It doesn’t change driving laws or car standards yet, and it doesn’t slow any ongoing or required regulations.