Ford Backed Group Supports Safe Vehicle Access For Survivors Act

As Ford Authority reported back in January 2024, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel wrote a letter to a number of wireless service carriers and automakers, including Ford, seeking help in her mission to protect domestic abuse survivors from the misuse of connected vehicle tools by abusers. This move – intended to gather information regarding how abusers could use connected vehicle tech to stalk their victims – later spawned the Safe Vehicle Access for Survivors Act of 2025, introduced by Representatives Debbie Dingell and Dan Crenshaw, which a Ford-backed lobby group is supporting as well.

“Thank you to Representatives Dingell and Crenshaw for teaming up to provide needed protections to domestic violence survivors who are being stalked or harassed through connected vehicle services. That’s a misuse of this technology and entirely unacceptable,” said Hilary Cain, Senior Vice President of Policy, Alliance for Automotive Innovation. “Last year, automakers urged policymakers to pass a vehicle-specific law to safeguard domestic violence survivors from abuse via connected vehicle technology. And that’s exactly what this bipartisan bill does. It’s a commonsense plan to give domestic violence survivors the ability to terminate or disable their abuser’s access to shared connected vehicle services.”

This new bill aims to “establish a process for survivors to request the termination or disabling of connected vehicle services that abusers misuse, and for other purposes.” “As you know, modern cars offer a range of features that improve convenience for drivers, like assistance locating a car in a parking lot, turning a car on remotely, and connecting with first responders in an emergency without a phone,” Rosenworcel wrote in her previous letter. “But as the report noted, these features rely on wireless connectivity and location data that in the wrong hands can be used to harm partners in abusive relationships in a number of ways.”

It is worth noting that Ford offers owners several ways to turn off access to vehicle location, which is good news for those that have suffered from domestic abuse. Owners can turn off connectivity settings, location sharing data, and even disassociate their vehicle from the FordPass app via their touchscreen, in fact.