Every new car in the EU must now carry a camera that watches the driver

A small camera now sits in the cabin of every new passenger car and van sold in the European Union, aimed at the driver’s face by law. Since July 7, 2026, each newly manufactured vehicle has to carry an advanced driver distraction warning, a system built to notice the moment a driver’s attention leaves the road.

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In practice the system watches gaze and head position and sounds an alert if eyes stay off the road for too long. It arrived as part of a bundle of second-phase safety requirements that also covers emergency braking able to detect pedestrians and cyclists, better forward vision, new tests for worn tyres, and a larger area of safety glass to protect people on foot.

Regulation 2019/2144 and a staged start

The mandate traces back to Regulation (EU) 2019/2144, adopted on Nov. 27, 2019, published on Dec. 16, 2019 and in force from Jan. 5, 2020. It is the General Safety Regulation, and it was always meant to arrive in steps. Many systems, including intelligent speed assistance, have been compulsory for new cars and vans since 2024, and the European Commission’s notice says the later phase took longer because the more demanding features needed extra development time.

Seen from the showroom, the pattern is steady: The Next Web describes the 2019 law as turning features once reserved for premium models into standard equipment, one phase at a time, so a buyer of a budget hatchback or a delivery van gets the same watchfulness as a luxury sedan owner. The stated aim is Vision Zero, the goal of bringing road deaths as close to zero as possible by 2050. Distraction and the protection of vulnerable road users are the two targets the 2026 requirements lean on most. The Commission’s notice names the driver distraction warning as a requirement meant to keep drivers focused, though it does not describe how the system works.

Gaze tracking without facial recognition

The how is spelled out elsewhere. The Next Web’s report describes a camera pointed at the driver’s face that tracks gaze and head position, and calls it the most contentious element of the package. Safety researchers see value in it because inattention is a major cause of crashes, while privacy advocates remain wary of any camera inside a cabin, even one designed to work in the moment rather than record.

The law itself draws some lines. According to the European Parliament’s legislative summary, these safety systems must operate without biometric data about drivers or passengers, and the text specifically excludes facial recognition. They also must not record or permanently store data beyond what their purpose requires. Event data recorders, the crash-data devices that are a separate requirement, may keep data only for road safety analysis, and that data must not let anyone identify a vehicle’s owner or keeper.

What the sources do not settle is how long a given manufacturer’s system holds any frames or alert logs in memory. The Next Web says it did not find data-handling or retention details, and the Commission page is silent on the subject too.

A supplier’s view and the scope of the rule

Companies that sell driver monitoring software welcomed the date. Martin Krantz, the chief executive and founder of Smart Eye, said in the company’s announcement that “July 7 is a landmark day for road safety in Europe,” and he predicted the regulation will set a precedent for other parts of the world. Smart Eye describes the trigger conditions broadly: visual distraction, meaning a driver looking away from the road, interacting with in-car systems, or using a mobile device. It also says systems based only on vehicle behavior, such as steering or lane keeping, are generally not enough, and that compliance typically needs sensors and software that analyze head and eye movements.

A warning that fires when a phone comes up or a screen draws the eyes sits at the center of the rule, and the sources agree it is a warning rather than a restriction: nothing in them says the car takes over or limits what a driver can do. The signal is the point, and the cabin camera is how the car knows when to give it.

Krantz’s company has a commercial stake in that reading, so it is a supplier’s description rather than a regulator’s. The scope is clearer from the Commission, which says the new requirements cover new passenger cars and vans on the EU market, and from Parliament’s summary, which lists the distraction warning among features required across motor vehicle categories including trucks and buses. The sources reviewed here describe EU law and the EU market, and do not address the rules in European countries outside the bloc.

One review date is already fixed. The Parliament summary says the Commission must deliver an evaluation report on the framework by July 7, 2027, and again every five years after that. Whether that first report says anything about camera data, and whether privacy regulators weigh in before it lands, is the open question for the first year of cameras in every new cabin.

This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.