You may remember the Tiny Cars Trump promised Americans were soon going to be free to buy. Of course, he didn’t actually promise that. Americans were led to believe that. It’s a distinction that matters when parsing what Trump promises.
Now Trump – via Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy – is promising Americans Freedom Cars. Americans are as likely to get them as Tiny Cars. What is a “Freedom Car”? It is said to be a new car free of all the cloying and creepy Big Brother tech, especially the tech that watches you as you drive – i.e., “drowsy/distracted” driver tech – and the remote-control tech – i.e., “connectedness.” Duffy says – in his official release – that “we must protect the right of Americans to purchase and drive traditional vehicles by prohibiting any mandates that would require vehicles to be capable of wireless data transmission or automated driving.” And also that he will: “Prohibit any Federal, State, tribal, or local authority from mandating that vehicles sold or operated on public roads be equipped with automated driving systems or be capable of transmitting data wirelessly.”
Italics added. Behold. A promise of a piece with the promise about Tiny Cars. Also Duffy’s recent claim that Tiny Cars are here. (By which he meant the Fiat Topolino, which is an electric golf cart with a rope for a door and a top speed of 25 MPH.) It requires an understanding of such promises (and claims) to understand what isn’t promised – and what you get. Duffy says there should not be any “mandates that would require vehicles to be capable of wireless data transmission or automated driving.” Well, there aren’t any such. The industry – the car companies – have embedded wireless data transmission capability – because they see it as a new revenue stream (they can and do “monetize” the data collected about you) and the automated driving stuff is being pushed by them, not mandated by the government. Same goes for the “assistance” tech, which is just bits and pieces of the automated driving tech.
Some of this tech does anticipate mandates, such as the Automated Emergency Braking (AEB) mandate that goes into effect in 2029. But the stuff that’s here right now is here because the car industry embedded the tech on its own. As far as “traditional”? Good luck with that. Duffy/Trump’s proposal, the Data Rights for Information and Vehicle Electronics in Real-time Act (DRIVE; the “elites” love these infantile acronyms) would putatively limit the data collection and monetization that is already a fact of life in the new car market in that all new cars collect and emit “data.” But does it mean anything in any meaningful sense? Probably not. The car companies may possibly be obliged to have you sign a User Agreement of some kind – with lots of pages and fine print – when you buy a car. No one will read the fine print, or understand it if hey did. Most will just sign – as most tap on “accept” when they download an app they want. It’s a greasy but effective tactic. They present you with a prolix contract you don’t understand because they do not want you to understand it; one that is prolix on purpose; it’s all “standard stuff” – just sign here and let’s move on. Most do.
The feds aren’t going to prevent the advance of connectedness unless they forbid it – and that is not quite the same thing as not mandating it, isn’t it? It’s of a piece with Trump’s issuing of an executive order allowing Tiny Cars to be built in this country in that there was never a law against building them in this country. The reason no car company builds Tiny Cars in this country is because it’s illegal to sell them – hence why build them? So, Trump-via-Duffy promising Freedom Cars does not mean new cars will be free of cloying/creepy “connected” tech. It only means they could be – if the car companies decide not to make them the way they’re making them right now. Absent a mandate requiring them not to, that’s as likely as the same privacy and owner-control being restored to a smartphone (if they ever had it). The Subaru Outback I recently reviewed isn’t mandated to have EyeSight and Acceleration Override Assist – and yet it does. So do most of the 2026 model year vehicles I’ve test-driven this year. Plus Lane Keep Assist and Speed Limit Assist as well as various other “assists.” It’s not what most people want but it is what all people (who buy buy new vehicles) get – because that’s what you get when you buy just about any new vehicle, no matter what brand it is.
This circles us back to Tiny Cars, which are – fundamentally – simpler cars and that is the only way we’ll ever have Freedom Cars again. In Trump’s usage, Tiny Cars are Japanese Kei cars, which are tiny (and inexpensive) cars. Americans aren’t allowed to buy these cars because their manufacturers – such as Honda and Mazda – are not permitted to offer them for sale, since they are not “compliant” with every jot and tittle of the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) regulatory Bible that effectively dictates car design. It goes deeper than that, however. Other than exceptions made for very low-volume specialty manufacturers – e.g., Revology, which sells brand-new ’60s-era Mustangs – no one is allowed to sell simple cars anymore. The Revology Mustang isn’t tiny and it isn’t “connected.” It has no air bags, either. It’s prettty simple – because it’s basically a rebooted ’60s Mustang. But it is hugely expensive and so for the very affluent only – whereas back in the ’60s, almost anyone could afford to buy a brand-new Mustang and that’s why Ford sold millions of them. If Ford – if any other car company – were allowed to make simple cars, which would also be affordable cars, they’d be appealing cars. Such cars would in the millions, again. The necessary predicate is getting the feds entirely out of the business of allowing/not-allowing us to decide what kinds of cars we are allowed to buy – which would then force the car companies to offer the kinds of cars we want to buy. Imagine that.
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