# Driver Technology and Pedestrian Safety Act of 2025

This bill asks the federal government to study whether touchscreen systems in cars are making driving more dangerous. Over the past decade, car manufacturers have replaced physical buttons and knobs with large touchscreens that control everything from climate to entertainment. The bill wants to know if this change is causing more accidents, injuries, and deaths—especially for pedestrians and cyclists.

The Secretary of Transportation has three months to hire the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to conduct this research. The study will look back at least ten years of data to compare what happens when drivers use touchscreen systems versus traditional physical controls. Specifically, researchers will examine how often these systems distract drivers, whether certain screen designs are worse than others (like brightness or size), and how touchscreens compare to the distraction caused by using a smartphone while driving. They'll also consider whether time of day, weather, traffic conditions, and other factors affect how dangerous these systems are.

Within two years, the Transportation Department must report its findings to Congress and publish them online for the public to see. Two months after that, the department must provide recommendations for reducing traffic injuries and deaths. These recommendations will be divided into two categories: changes that federal agencies can make using their existing authority, and changes that would require Congress to pass new laws. The bill also recommends updating how the government collects crash data so we can better track when touchscreen use contributes to accidents.

Essentially, this bill is a fact-finding mission. It doesn't ban touchscreens or require any immediate changes to cars—it just wants solid evidence about whether they're actually making roads less safe, so Congress can decide what to do about it.