Ministry wants driver monitoring cameras on all cars

In a draft revised law on road traffic order and safety, the ministry said car owners must install the driver attention monitor on their cars, even when the vehicles are used only for personal purposes.

The ministry is gathering feedback from related ministries and departments and will submit the bill to the parliament for approval.

Since July, it has been regulated that all autos used for transport businesses must have cruise control system and driver monitoring cameras. Data collected from those devices will be transmitted to the Ministry of Transport's Department for Roads of Vietnam for better management.

Now the ministry wants to impose the request on all private cars.

Currently, though it has not been regulated yet, many people have already installed dash cams on their cars so that they can use the footage as solid evidence if any collisions happen. But most dash cams record images in front of or behind the cars, instead of from the cockpit.

Also, this data belongs to the vehicle owners, and they have no responsibility to share it with others.

The draft law does not have specific information about whether it is mandatory for private car owners to transmit the data to the authorities.

Vietnam currently has around 4 million private cars.