"As vehicles get smarter, your car will be keeping eyes on you," a recent Reuters report threatened. New backseat driver tech aims to monitor you inside your car.

Gary Numan once sang in the song "Cars," which sounded futuristic in its time:

Here in my car
I feel safest of all
I can lock all my doors
It's the only way to live
In cars

However, the age of cars being a symbol of freedom, autonomy, and self-responsibility appear to be over.

Your car could actually report you to the police.

The cars of the near-future don't feel like the safe, private space about which Numan sang. And the responsibility is moving away from the driver over to A.I. in a sort of Wall-E type society. Cars are becoming more like moving living rooms at the cost of personal freedom.

That is to say that self-driving, smart cars are here to stay and will monitor you and possibly report on you as they record you in your vehicle.

Today we are talking about interior-facing, driver monitoring tech which the media endearingly calls "a backseat driver." But the technology actually has more control than a nagging passenger merely trying to direct your driving.

As self-driving cars already take off in Arizona, the media cheers the surveillance technology from the bleachers. Any qualms about the tech are muted with sales copy straight from the creators of the products. It's not about "if self-driving cars gain broad acceptance," it's about "when" self-driving cars gain broad acceptance, we are told.

What is back-seat driver tech (interior-facing, driver monitoring technology)?

In January, the international consumer electronics show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada showcased many A.I. and car tech companies and their many ways of analyzing the driver.

In-car sensor technology is now capable of composing images on the driver, capturing motion, monitoring facial expressions in order to detect features about the driver and monitor whether they are too distracted, too sleepy, etc.

This creepy description from the report can hardly hide the intrusive tentacles of the tech:

Whether by generating alerts about drowsiness, unfastened seat belts or wallets left in the backseat, the emerging technology aims not only to cut back on distracted driving and other undesirable behavior, but eventually help automakers and ride-hailing companies make money from data generated inside the vehicle. (Source)

But what is "other undesirable behavior"? Is it teen romance? Smoking? Dropping a McDonald's french fry in the back seat? The report never specifies.

Continued:

In-car sensor technology is deemed critical to the full deployment of self-driving cars, which analysts say is still likely years away in the United States. Right now, self-driving cars are still mainly at the testing stage.