A new bill proposal would give New York police the legal right to use a "textalyzer" tool to hack smartphones at a car accident scene to learn if the mobile device was used when the crash happened. This would be in addition to being required to submit a blood alcohol sample after a car crash. New Yorkers could lose their driver's license if they fail to turn over their cellphone to police officers after an auto accident.
The new law was proposed by state senator Terrence Murphy and assemblyman Felix Ortiz. It would give the New York Police Department (NYPD) permission to search any mobile phone or portable device at the scene of a car accident, according to The Guardian.
The Israeli company Cellebrite helps law enforcement to hack smartphones and reportedly assisted the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in breaking the encryption of the iPhone 5c owned by a shooter in last year's San Bernardino terrorist attack. Its new textalyzer gadget would analyze a New York deriver's handset.
In addition, the proposed bill also states that drivers who refuse to allow police to search their cellphones will have their licenses revoked. That is even true when they are not at fault. Out-of-state drivers who do not cooperate with police officers will also lose their rights to drive cars and trucks in The Empire State.
The bill was introduced by the New York politicians and activist group Distracted Operators Risk Causalities (DORCS). It was founded by the parents of kids involved in car crashes caused by drivers who were distracted by their mobile devices. The law would be named Evan's Law after the co-founder's teenage son who was killed in an auto accident resulting from a driver who failed to keep their eyes on the road.
In related news, a new report claims that it is impossible to test if autonomous vehicles (AVs) are safe, according to Fortune. The report published by research company RAND Corporation argues self-driving cars would require up to hundreds of billions miles to collect enough data for comparing the vehicles with human-driven automobiles.
Co-author and RAND senior statistician Susan Paddock referred to Google's racking up the most autonomous mileage at 1.3 million miles. However, Paddock argued that logging up to 10 million miles would still not provide solid evidence that robot cars are safe and reliable.
Here's a video on Cellebrite's reported role in Apple v. FBI: