The Expert Podcast

You've probably been hearing a lot about this automotive car kill switch that's been in the news, where, in 2026 or later, any new vehicle sold in the US has to have a kill switch that can shut off the car. Part of this kill switch technology requires that if the car automatically detects somebody who's a drunk driver, it shuts off. They’re going to detect it by swerving, bad driving, or crossing the line.

So, obviously, there's been a lot of pushback to this. What if you have to swerve to miss a deer? Or maybe it's windy and it blows you off the road? What if you're on back roads, and maybe it's bad conditions and you have to swerve? How many times until your car shuts off?

Well, it's worse than that. In the same way, people are talking about what if a woman with her kids is driving, and the car shuts off, leaving them stranded. This can be done intentionally. Criminals are going to figure out pretty quickly that if they want to capture somebody or immobilize someone, all they have to do is cut you off two or three times and make you swerve to avoid them. This will trigger the automatic kill switch.

So, it's a good way to carjack somebody, rob them, or worse—by intentionally making them swerve, which will trick the car into thinking the person’s drunk, causing the car to shut off.

Forget about this happening accidentally. Forget about something jumping in front of you or a kid’s ball rolling into the road. What about it happening on purpose? That’s the bigger risk. If someone really wants to shut you down and stop you from driving away, all they have to do is cut in front of you two or three times until your car thinks you're drunk. The car will shut off, and now they’ve got you.

I know you have an opinion about that. Let us know in the comments.