Auto Data Privacy and Autonomy Act
Summary
What This Bill Does
This bill regulates covered data from motor vehicles and farm or construction vehicles, including user data, vehicle-generated data, geolocation data, internet activity, and other personally identifiable information. Manufacturers may access covered data only with written, informed, specific, withdrawable owner consent or for vehicle performance or safety; may share data only under limited legal, emergency, or consent conditions; and may not transfer personally identifiable information of U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents to named foreign adversary jurisdictions. Manufacturers must give owners real-time, no-extra-cost access and control through vehicle ports, wireless transmission where available, and open APIs that allow user-data deletion and preference setting. FTC enforces the Act with existing funds.
Who Benefits and How
Vehicle owners and users benefit from consent rights, control over deletion and preferences, real-time data access, and protection against unwanted sale or foreign transfer of their driving, geolocation, internet activity, and vehicle-generated data. Independent repair businesses and third-party service providers may benefit from open API and access rights when owners authorize them.
Who Bears the Burden and How
Vehicle manufacturers, connected-vehicle data platforms, software teams, and data brokers must build consent records, withdrawal paths, sharing limits, foreign-transfer blocks, owner-access tools, real-time transmission, interface-port access, wireless access, open APIs, deletion controls, and FTC compliance programs. The Federal Trade Commission must enforce the new unfair-or-deceptive-practice rule using existing appropriations.
Key Provisions
- Defines covered data to include user data and vehicle-generated data from covered vehicles.
- Requires written, informed, specific, and withdrawable owner consent for manufacturer access except safety or performance uses.
- Restricts sale, lease, sharing, and foreign transfer of personally identifiable vehicle data.
- Requires real-time, no-extra-cost owner access and control through ports, wireless transmission, and open APIs.
- Authorizes Federal Trade Commission enforcement without new appropriations.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Set federal privacy, consent, foreign-transfer, owner-access, and FTC enforcement rules for user data and vehicle-generated data from connected vehicles.
Key Policy Areas
Privacy, Technology, Transportation, Consumer Protection
Primary Purpose
Set federal privacy, consent, foreign-transfer, owner-access, and FTC enforcement rules for user data and vehicle-generated data from connected vehicles.
Policy Domains
Substantive provisions
Identified Gains
- Vehicle owners
- Vehicle users
- Independent repair businesses
- Authorized third-party service providers
Identified Costs
- Vehicle manufacturers
- Connected-vehicle data platforms
- Federal Trade Commission staff
- Automotive software teams
- Vehicle data brokers
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeMr. Burlison introduced the following bill; which was referred to …
Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
Introduced in House
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Vehicle manufacturers applying data definitions, Vehicle manufacturers building owner access tools, Vehicle manufacturers handling covered data
Positive-direction: Vehicle manufacturers protecting confidential business information
Negative-direction: Vehicle manufacturers applying data definitions, Vehicle manufacturers building owner access tools, Vehicle manufacturers handling covered data
Vehicle owners accessing onboard data, Vehicle owners covered by data definitions, Vehicle owners protecting geolocation data
Connected-vehicle data platforms, Vehicle-data handlers facing FTC penalties
Foreign data recipients in restricted countries
State regulators with conflicting vehicle-data rules
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "Enforcer"
- → ['Federal Trade Commission']
- "Beneficiaries"
- → ['Vehicle owners', 'Vehicle users', 'Independent repair businesses', 'Service providers']
- "Regulated actors"
- → ['Vehicle manufacturers', 'Connected-vehicle data platforms', 'Software teams', 'Data brokers']
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology