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New, by me: A cyberattack on a vehicle breathalyzer company called Intoxalock has left drivers across the United States stranded and unable to start their cars.

https://techcrunch.com/2026/03/20/cyberattack-on-vehicle-breathalyzer-company-leaves-drivers-stranded-across-the-us/


Cyberattack on vehicle breathalyzer company leaves drivers stranded across the US | TechCrunch

A cyberattack on a U.S. car breathalyzer company has left drivers across the United States reportedly stranded and unable to start their vehicles.
Zack Whittaker (TechCrunch)

Neil E. Hodges reshared this.

in reply to Zack Whittaker

Cassandrich
Cassandrich
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Why would you design a mechanism like this to phone home at all? That's just malicious.

There's no reason the thing can't be local-only. Make it physically tamper-resistant and such that attempted tampering destroys key material so that it can't be used or made to look untampered again afterwards. Then it can just be validated when it's returned at the end of court-ordered monitoring or if there's suspicion of tampering.

in reply to Cassandrich

Neil E. Hodges
Neil E. Hodges
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If you think that's bad…

Your Next Car Will Watch Your Eyes — State of Surveillance

Congress mandated in 2021 that all new cars include "advanced impaired driving prevention technology" by 2027. The tech includes infrared cameras that track your eyes, pupil dilation, and driving behavior. NHTSA missed its deadline to finalize rules because no current system meets the required 99.9% accuracy—even that level would strand tens of millions of sober drivers per year.
What Congress Passed

Section 24220 of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, signed by President Biden in November 2021, directed NHTSA to finalize rules requiring "passive" impaired driving detection in all new passenger vehicles carrying 12 or fewer people. The original deadline was November 2024. It passed without action.

The law defines the technology as systems that either:

  • Passively monitor driver performance to identify impairment and prevent vehicle operation
  • Passively detect blood alcohol concentration above the legal limit
  • Both of the above

The word "passive" is key. These systems must work without any action from the driver. No blowing into a breathalyzer. No touching a sensor. Just constant, invisible monitoring.

in reply to Neil E. Hodges

Cassandrich
Cassandrich
• •

Yeah I've heard. It'll be interesting to see how people react to deployment of that shit.

Absolutely no way I am letting model for how normies' faces are supposed to look and react watch mine and judge me based on it.

(Or worse, exfiltrate private video of me to further train that bs.)

But I don't think I'd be in that position anyway except maybe in a rental car since I have no intention of ever buying a vehicle made after 2015 or so (or really ever buying a car again at all).

This entry was edited (1 week ago)
in reply to Cassandrich

Cassandrich
Cassandrich
• •
@tk I find the whole plan rather farcical though. Like, how do they intend for it to work with sunglasses, which a large portion of the driving population uses to deal with sunlight sensitivity? With sunglasses and a KN95, what can it see of your face at all? Is it supposed to make you stop the car until you take them off?
@Neil E. Hodges
in reply to Cassandrich

Neil E. Hodges
Neil E. Hodges
•
I really hope they aren't effectively trying to ban sunglasses and masks from cars. :(
in reply to Cassandrich

khm
khm
• •

Nobody cares if the tech actually works toward the stated goal. It's a smokescreen to remove liability for tracking and data collection. Among MADD's biggest sponsors are Uber and Flock: the money that made this happen is surveillance tech.

CC: @tk@f.kawa-kun.com @zackwhittaker@mastodon.social

@Neil E. Hodges @Zack Whittaker
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