Obama Administration's Transportation Bill Would Give NHTSA Power to Regulate Smartphone Apps

Ronnie Schreiber
by Ronnie Schreiber

The New York Times is reporting that the Obama administration’s proposed transportation bill would give the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration explicit authority to regulate in-vehicle navigation aids of all types. The regulations would not just apply to built in navigation systems as the legislation would also give NHTSA authority to regulate smartphone apps when used in a vehicle. While drivers and technology companies might object, the proposals have the endorsement of the major car companies who already comply with the agency’s voluntary guidelines for factory installed nav systems that restrict driver contact with those systems.

Representatives for the tech industry say that the legislation is not workable nor enforceable. “[Regulators] don’t have enough software engineers,” said Catherine McCullough, executive director of the Intelligent Car Coalition, a technology industry trade group. “They don’t have the budget or the structure to oversee both Silicon Valley and the auto industry.”

On its part, NHTSA regulators say that they already have the authority to control in-car navigation aids, which raises the question as to why they want it made statutory law.

Former NHTSA administrator David L. Strickland, has twice testified before Congress with the agency’s position that nav systems, including smartphone nav apps, could be “classified as motor vehicle equipment” like some other electronic car accessories. In response, the electronics industry said that there’s a broad difference between a smart key and a smartphone.

One concern of regulators are smartphone apps that merge navigation information with social networking. Waze, which is owned by Google, uses a network of users to report, in real time, traffic and road conditions, hazards and the location of police cars. The Waze user agreement and the app interface prohibits the sending of messages to their network when the car is in motion, but that can be overridden by indicating that a passenger is entering the data.

Navigation and mapping are important parts of the business plans of large tech companies like Apple and Google. Both of those companies use data and contextual information gathered from users to augment search functions and other applications.

Tech companies have fears that the new legislation would give NHTSA the power to review smartphone apps before they go on sale, but NHTSA claims that in the same way they regulate cars and light trucks, they would have the authority to have an app modified if it was found to be dangerous. Considering all of the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard that automakers must meet before they sell a vehicle, the tech companies’ concerns may be well warranted.

Then there is the practical aspect of enforcement. Harold Feld, of Public Knowledge, a digital rights advocacy group, asked that with some kind of map application on nearly every smartphone available in the United States, “Does their regulatory status change in a car? How the heck would anyone monitor that?”

Safety advocates and regulators respond that unless there are uniform regulations for all navigation aids used in cars, people will not use the regulated built-in devices and instead use their own hand-held devices, introducing the possibility of distracted driving. That position is supported by the automakers. “If you put restrictions on the built-in systems designed to be used while driving, it’s going to encourage people to use hand-held devices that are not optimal for use by a driver,” said Gloria Bergquist, a spokeswoman for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers. “We believe that if you’re looking at a smaller screen, that’s less effective than looking at a larger screen on the dashboard.”

Ronnie Schreiber edits Cars In Depth, a realistic perspective on cars & car culture and the original 3D car site. If you found this post worthwhile, you can get a parallax view at Cars In Depth. If the 3D thing freaks you out, don’t worry, all the photo and video players in use at the site have mono options. Thanks for reading – RJS

Ronnie Schreiber
Ronnie Schreiber

Ronnie Schreiber edits Cars In Depth, the original 3D car site.

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  • Brian P Brian P on Jun 16, 2014

    Skip trying to regulate apps. It's futile. Instead, if someone crashes and it is found that they were either yapping on the phone or poking at a screen, add "gross negligence causing ..." on top of whatever else happened because of the crash. Where I'm from, there are laws against using handheld devices while driving, but they aren't needed, because even before that law showed up, talking on the phone or poking at a screen while driving equals "driving without due care and attention" and that equals "careless driving", had the cops bothered to enforce it (which was the real problem with that).

  • Z71_Silvy Z71_Silvy on Jun 16, 2014

    And this government's overreach continues

  • Dave Holzman A design award for the Prius?!!! Yes, the Prius is a great looking car, but the visibility is terrible from what I've read, notably Consumer Reports. Bad visibility is a dangerous, and very annoying design flaw.
  • Wjtinfwb I've owned multiple Mustang's, none perfect, all an absolute riot. My '85 GT with a big Holley 4 barrel and factory tube header manifolds was a screaming deal in its day and loved to rev. I replaced it with an '88 5.0 Convertible and added a Supercharger. Speed for days, handling... present. Brakes, ummm. But I couldn't kill it and it embarrassed a lot of much more expensive machinery. A '13 Boss 302 in Gotta Have It Green was a subtle as a sledgehammer, open up the exhaust cut outs and every day was Days of Thunder. I miss them all. They've gotten too expensive and too plush, I think, wish they'd go back to a LX version, ditch all the digital crap, cloth interior and just the Handling package as an add on. Keep it under 40k and give todays kids an alternative to a Civic or WRX.
  • Jpolicke In a communist dictatorship, there isn't much export activity that the government isn't aware of. That being the case, if the PRC wanted to, they could cut the flow of fentanyl down to a trickle. Since that isn't happening, I therefore assume Xi Jinping doesn't want it cut. China needs to feel the consequences for knowingly poisoning other countries' citizens.
  • El scotto Oh, ye nattering nabobs of negativism! Think of countries like restaurants. Our neighbors to the north and south are almost as good and the service is fantastic. They're awfully close to being as good as the US. Oh the Europeans are interesting and quaint but you really only go there a few times a year. Gents, the US is simply the hottest restaurant in town. Have to stand in line to get in? Of course. Can you hand out bribes to get in quicker? Of course. Suppliers and employees? Only the best on a constant basis.Did I mention there is a dress code? We strictly enforce it. Don't like it? Suck it.
  • 1995 SC At least you can still get one. There isn't much for Ford folks to be happy about nowadays, but the existence of the Mustang and the fact that the lessons from back in the 90s when Ford tried to kill it and replace it with the then flavor of the day seem to have been learned (the only lessons they seem to remember) are a win not only for Ford folks but for car people in general. One day my Super Coupe will pop its headgaskets (I know it will...I read it on the Internet). I hope I will still be physically up to dropping the supercharged Terminator Cobra motor into it. in all seriousness, The Mustang is a.win for car guys.
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