Your car's data is yours—but manufacturers keep broad loopholes
H.R. 6687 — DRIVER Act · Filed by Diana Harshbarger (R-TN) · 5 cosponsors · Introduced Dec 12, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill requires car manufacturers to give owners direct, real-time access to all data their vehicles generate—including location, biometric data, and driving behavior—at no extra cost, without restrictions on how owners use it or share it with third parties. Manufacturers cannot sell this data without the owner's explicit opt-in consent, and cannot sell it to hostile foreign governments; the FTC enforces violations as unfair trade practices, and the bill preempts all state laws on the subject.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core mechanism is a data-access and consent mandate—owners get real-time access to vehicle data and manufacturers must obtain opt-in consent before selling sensitive data. This is a privacy/consumer-protection bill, not a subsidy, deregulation, or commemorative measure.
What the text implies
- The bill's preemption of state law (Section 6) eliminates any state-level privacy or data-protection rules that go beyond the federal floor, potentially weakening protections in states that would have imposed stricter standards.
- The 'lawful purpose' language in Section 2(3) is broad and undefined—owners can share data with third parties for any lawful use, which could include data brokers, insurers, or advertisers, creating secondary markets the bill does not regulate.
The full analysis lists 5 implications of this text.
Who stands to gain
vehicle owners (data access and control rights); third-party data processors and analytics firms (potential new market for owner-authorized data shar; cybersecurity and privacy-compliance vendors (compliance infrastructure)