You have probably heard about the creepy “drowsy/distracted driver” detection systems that will be a required standard feature in new vehicles beginning with the 2027 models, which will be appearing very soon. Many current and recent-year models already have this “technology” – in the form of eye-movement monitors you can’t see but which see you.

The 2026 Subaru Outback, for instance.

It is “all new” – and one of the new things about it is mounted atop the big LCD touchscreen. It doesn’t look like much because you can’t see much – with your eyes. But there are infrared eyes built into there that are looking at you, constantly. If these cameras wee you’re not looking straight ahead like a blinkered Clydesdale – this is apparently the definition of undistracted driving, never mind not seeing what’s around you rather than just straight ahead – or it appears to the cameras you are “drowsy” then cue the annoying, mother-in-law prompts via dings and chimes and pestering displays in the main gauge cluster.

These are not considered distracting, for some reason.

The good news is you can make it so the electronic eyes can’t see you – and this prevents the “technology” from pestering you with mother-in-law-like injunctions to keep your eyes on the road and sit up straight (yes, really; the cameras need to be able to see you from a certain angle and if they can’t, you get pestered to sit up straight). It is deeply satisfying to thwart this “technology – not just because it is annoying but because it is being pushed on us with a subtle relentlessness.

There are certainly people who can benefit from “assistance.” Some people aren’t especially good drivers. It is the presumption – putatively – that every driver needs “assistance” that grates because it is insulting. It is something like being pestered to buy a can when you buy a pair of sneakers on the assumption that you need assistance walking. Why not make this “assistance” tech available – optionally – so that those who do need it can buy it, just the same as hand controls and wheelchair lifts are available for handicapped people who need those things? 

Well, because it is not really about “assistance” – though that this is the gaslighting etymology used to shut up those who want to know why everyone must be treated as presumptively in need of assistance (of a piece with the way “health” was used to shut up people who questioned why everyone was being pushed to “mask up” and then to get shot-up). This – like that – is all about control. It is always about control.

The way they’ll control us is by assisting us.

If you have any questions about this, you might be interested to know about another “technology” that comes along for the ride in the new Outback. It is styled Emergency Stop Assist. It “safely” stops the Crosstrek if the system concludes the driver is “unresponsive.” Now, how would that be determined, exactly? Well, the eyes are on you! If the system thinks you’re falling asleep-at-the-wheel, the car will come to a stop – which it can do because the car controls the throttle and the brakes and the steering now. Not just Subaru’s cars, either. This is a system that has been leeching into all new cars for several years now, well in anticipation of the 2027 mandate.

Consider: If the “technology” can stop the car when it thinks you’re “unresponsive,” it can bring the car to a stop anytime the car – and those who control it – wish to. When you’re not sitting up straight, say. Or you don’t sit there like a blinkered Clydesdale staring straight ahead; if you have the temerity to pay attention to what’s going on around you – which when you think about it is a working definition of alertness as opposed to passivity. The latter is what people are being trained up to be – via all of this “assistance” stuff.

For now, the painter’s tape works like putting tape over the yapping mouth of an annoying mother-in-law. But what’s next? What happens when this “tech” isn’t just something pushed on us by the vehicle manufacturers but required by the federal government? It is illegal to remove or defeat an air bag (even if the thing is admitted to be dangerously defective by the government).

Something tell me it’ll be more than just annoying mother-in-law pestering – and that painter’s tape will become an actionable offense. One that may trigger Emergency Stop Assistance.

. . .

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