On  Tuesday, January 24, 2017, U.S. Representatives Ted Lieu (D-CA) and Joe Wilson (R-SC) introduced the Security and Privacy in Your Car Study Act of 2017.  The bill, H.R. 701, directs the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (“NHTSA”) to undertake a study on cybersecurity standards for motor vehicles. 

If enacted, the measure would require NHTSA to study and determine the “appropriate standards for the regulation of the cybersecurity of motor vehicles” and to make recommendations to be adopted by NHTSA or any other relevant federal agency.  The legislation focuses on both the physical security of automobiles and the protection of users’ personal data.  Specifically, the bill asks NHTSA to identify (1) isolation measures to separate critical and non-critical automobile software systems, (2) procedures for preventing software bugs, (3) techniques to detect or prevent malicious hacking, (4) best practices to secure driving data, and (5) the proper timeline to implement such protections and practices.

Under the proposal, NHTSA is asked to conduct the study in coordination with a number of public and private groups—including the Federal Trade Commission, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the Department of Defense, the Automotive Information Sharing and Analysis Center, and SAE International, as well as automobile manufacturers, original equipment manufacturers, and relevant academic institutions.  The bill demands a preliminary report to Congress one year after enactment, and a final report six months after that.

Representatives Lieu and Wilson introduced similar legislation, H.R. 3994, in the last Congress, but that bill was never passed out of committee.  To date, no equivalent Senate bill has been introduced.