Driver Technology and Pedestrian Safety Act of 2025
Sponsored By: Representative Mullin
In Committee
Summary
A national study of how driver-controlled technology, especially touch screen dashboards, affects severe crashes and vulnerable road users. The bill would require the Transportation Secretary to contract with the National Academies to study driver distraction, injuries, fatalities, and user-interface design and then publish findings and recommendations.
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- Drivers and vulnerable road users: Would analyze whether replacing tactile knobs and switches with touch screens changes the risk of property damage, severe injuries, or deaths for drivers, pedestrians, and bicyclists, using up to 10 years of data.
- Vehicle makers and designers: Would evaluate touch screen characteristics such as brightness and size and how user-interface designs affect driver behavior, then offer recommendations some agencies could adopt under current authority and others that would need new law.
- Federal safety data and agencies: Would require a public report within 24 months of starting the study and follow-up recommendations 2 months later, and would ask the Secretary to propose updates to the Fatality Analysis Reporting System, National Occupant Protection Use Surveys, and Model Minimum Uniform Crash Criteria to better track touchscreen and smartphone use while driving.
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Bill Overview
Analyzed Economic Effects
2 provisions identified: 2 benefits, 0 costs, 0 mixed.
Study on driver tech and safety
If enacted, the bill would require the Secretary of Transportation to seek an agreement with the National Academies within 3 months, subject to available appropriations, to study how driver-controlled technology affects severe injuries and deaths. The study period would start no earlier than 10 years before the agreement date. The National Academies would have to report findings to Congress and publish them on the Department of Transportation website within 24 months of the agreement. Within 2 months after that report, the Secretary would send Congress recommendations to reduce severe injuries and deaths and to update federal crash and occupant-use data systems (like FARS, NOPUS, and MMUCC) to collect information on in-vehicle touch screens and smartphone use while driving, with recommendations split into those agencies can do now and those that would need new law.
Transportation rulemaking and court deference
If enacted, the bill would say it may not be read to block or delay any regulation that agencies are already allowed or required to issue. If enacted, it would also tell courts to accept a reasonable interpretation of any ambiguous term by the Secretary of Transportation. These rules are procedural and would affect how disputes and rulemaking proceed rather than directly changing benefits or costs for households.
Sponsors & CoSponsors
Sponsor
Mullin
CA • D
Cosponsors
Soto
FL • D
Sponsored 2/12/2026
Roll Call Votes
No roll call votes available for this bill.
View on Congress.gov