Driving in Europe feels like a dystopian sci-fi novel
When you get behind the wheel in the EU, Big Brother is Always Watching You.
SILICON VALLEY, CALIFORNIA (JULY 9, 2026) — I spend months each year in Europe and have done so for many years. I love just about everything about Europe: the food, the people, the landscapes, the visible reminders of history everywhere and a huge list of other charming qualities.
While there, I always rent a car and drive just about everywhere. (I would be happy to take trains and other public transportation, but I tend to frequent wine countries and farming areas where driving a car is necessary.)
Over the past four years, I’ve seen the European driving experience descend into an Orwellian fever dream of machine control over human agency.
And this week, the machines got yet another lever to scrutinize and punish people: As of Tuesday, all new cars registered in the EU are required to have an Advanced Driver Distraction Warning (ADDW) system. This is AI that watches the driver and judges them on their state of mind based on the driver’s head position, eye movements, and gaze direction.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m a big fan of safety. Using technology to save lives is good.
But there are three problems with the overreaching system Europe imposes on anyone driving in Europe.
1. Multiple regulations compound the Big Brother effect
European law requires that Intelligent Speed Assistance be on by default and warn drivers through sound, haptic feedback, or visual cues when they exceed the detected speed limit.
In some European countries, especially Italy, in my experience, the speed limit changes frequently, both for normal road conditions and also for places with closed lanes, roadwork and other temporary circumstances. I’ve seen 20-mile stretches of road where the speed limit changes 15 times.
In many places, the speed limit isn’t posted. It appears on your dashboard and also your phone if you’re using something like Google Maps.
While driving in Italy, I’ve found myself in situations where my dashboard says one speed limit, my phone another, a sign on the highway a third speed limit, and a temporary lighted sign a fourth speed limit. (The last one is the legal speed limit.) But when you see four speed limits at once, it can take your brain a minute to process, at which point the speed alarm is screeching at you.
EU law requires that the default mode in cars sound alarms when the system believes someone in the front or back seats isn’t wearing a seatbelt, when one of the tires isn’t fully inflated, when another vehicle enters your blind spot, when you’re close to a wall or curb while backing up, and when you get close to or cross over the lanes on the highway.
(All these systems can be turned off by the driver via a process that’s unintuitive and temporary. When the car is started again, the nanny features automatically turn back on.)
Any individual alarm would be fine. But while driving in Europe, the alarms are constant. You’re endlessly being scolded ]after your actions are scrutinized by machines and found wanting.
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2. Artificial intelligence is stupid
Lest this screed paint me as some kind of unreasonable I-can-do-whatever-I-want American, let me assure you that the biggest problem is the constant failures of both accuracy and what you might call for lack of a better term, common sense, by these systems.
Examples: A bicyclist swerves toward you on a narrow road as you’re passing, so you move a foot into the other empty lane, which sounds an alarm. You’re often scolded for driving safely.
The system believes the speed limit is 30 kph when in fact it’s 60, and other cars are whizzing past you. You’re often scolded for obeying the law.
You have groceries in the back seat, and the seatbelt alarm screeches at you until you pull over and fasten the seatbelt under the groceries. You’re often scolded for not doing something absurd.
You yawn because you’re bored, and also because you’re a human being and human beings yawn sometimes, and the system screams at you for what feels like five minutes, while the dashboard lectures you about not driving while tired. You’re often scolded for being human.
These kinds of situations where the machines are just dumb and wrong happen all the time.
Turning most of these off each time you start the car is possible, but it feels like, well, it feels like agreeing to cookies on literally every website you visit, which is another EU requirement — in other words, a disconnect between a well-intentioned regulation and common-sense reality.
3. The slope is way too slippery
If all these safety mechanisms were required at once, there would have been riots in the streets of Europe. Instead, they’ve been rolled out steadily and gradually over the past four years, allowing for the public to acclimate to being scolded by a machine over one transgression before rolling out the next one.
