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The EU's General Safety Regulation is set to be expanded

Driver Distraction Warning systems will need to be fitted to new cars

Privacy advocates are already voicing data concerns

As of this week, the European Commission has stated that all new vehicles registered in the European Union will have to be fitted with Advanced Driver Distraction Warning (ADDW) systems to comply with new, more stringent safety legislation.

While European roads are among the safest in the world, the European Commission said in its announcement that "the number of deaths and injuries from road accidents is still too high." As a result, it is set to expand its General Safety Regulation to include several new requirements.

Among the new requirements are advanced emergency braking systems that detect pedestrians and cyclists, as well as "better forward vision" and camera-based driver distraction technology that audibly warns drivers to pay attention to the road.

Many new cars already feature this technology , which uses a small camera mounted behind the steering wheel or somewhere above the infotainment system in the center of the dashboard.

Constantly active, the system monitors the driver's eyes and facial expressions, intervening if it detects that the driver is looking away from the road for too long.

(Image credit: DS Automobiles) Today's manufacturers' systems range from audible bleeps and on-screen safety notifications when it detects distraction, to the deactivation of automated cruise control and other functions.

Critics have already hit out at the decision, with the European Conservative describing the commission's move as the "latest annoying piece of EU overregulation," which arrives with little clarification on how the data will be handled.

These ADDW systems should operate in a closed-loop system, where all data is processed locally in the car and never uploaded to any third-party server.

However, since April 2018, all newly approved passenger cars and light vans in the EU have been required to include an eCall emergency system that automatically contacts emergency services in the event of a serious crash.

This, coupled with the fact that consulting firm McKinsey predicts that 95% of all vehicles will be connected to the internet by 2030, means it isn't a huge stretch to think that driver-monitoring data could eventually leave the vehicle.

Analysis: a data privacy nightmare

(Image credit: Volkswagen) Analysis by Mozilla in 2023 examined the privacy policies of 25 car brands and found that every single one failed to meet its own privacy and security standards. Mozilla concluded that cars were "the worst product category we have ever reviewed for privacy."

In 2024, the Texas Attorney General opened an investigation into several automakers following reports that they had been collecting large amounts of driver data and selling it to third parties.

As the European Conservative points out, there is currently very little clarity from the EU over how driver data is handled, meaning there is the potential for these systems to eventually help determine insurance premiums or act as evidence in a court of law, for example.

Beyond this, ADDW technology can also prove extremely distracting when implemented poorly.

I've lost count of how many times a system has warned me to pay attention when all I'm doing is trying to find a simple function in a baffling series of touchscreen menus.

On the one hand, Euro NCAP says it will target "annoying" safety tech, but on the other, the European Union is mandating greater reliance on these systems. Now is a confusing time to be a motorist.

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Roblox has done a lot of crossovers and collaborations, but the new one announced today really leaps out at me. The Rolling Stones, the world's greatest rock and roll band , is coming to Roblox in a new game based on the band's 60-year history.

"Players will encounter various parts of The Rolling Stones' legacy trapped inside of colorful crystals inspired by the band's 2023 album Hackney Diamond," the press blast explains.

"Players progress through decades representing the band's eras, working together to find and shatter the crystals while an iconic Stones track from that time soundtracks the gameplay. Doing so powers up a massive tongue-and-lips that releases a surge of rock and roll energy to disrupt each decade and unlock the next — culminating in a globally shared interactive performance that evolves based on community participation."

Am I irritated, perhaps to an unreasonable extent, by this? Maybe. The Stones are the epitome of rock and roll: "Sex and drugs" are essentially synonyms for Mick and Keith, but you've also got a spot of devil worship in the mix, one of the most notorious incidents of violence in rock history, and through it all, some of the most god-tier music ever made. Have no doubt, the Stones are a full-steam money-making machine, but underneath that corporate engine of commerce the spirit of rock remains pure and true—or at least I like to imagine it's still in there somewhere.

Stuff like this kinda takes the wind out of those sails: I destroyed my hearing for this? It's soul-deadening, yes, but it's also kind of weird. I mourn the dessicated corpse of rock and roll because, well, I'm old. But is your average 14-year-old Roblox die-hard really interested in any of this? As colleague Chris Livingston more aptly put it, "Nothing teens want to see more in their game than some 85 year old men singing songs older than their parents."

(Mick Jagger, for the record, is 82; his current wife is 17 years younger than his oldest daughter. Keith Richards is also 82, while Ronnie Wood is a relatively youthful 79.)

It does make me wonder: Is Roblox bringing culturally significant music to new audiences (do the Stones even need to reach new audiences at this point?), or is all of this just kind of weird—a big-in-name crossover that will ultimately prove more baffling than enthralling for its intended audience?

But then, it works the other way too. As part of the collaboration, Roblox has invited community creators Jazzyx3, CASKA’s HAUS, Touzled, Blizzei, DIONESS, morphist4u, WhoseTrade, Empyro, Bad_B0y, raekaro, Spiraxy, Valkenheim, DuckXander, Clockset, and dvdko to "to turn The Rolling Stones' globally beloved logo into not only exclusive cross-platform avatar accessories, but also a limited-edition, co-branded physical item available to purchase via an in-game Shopify integration that connects directly to the band's online store." And I, a man with fond(ish) memories of seeing the Stones on the Steel Wheels tour, suddenly feel like I need to go outside for a while. Or maybe just have a lie-down.

The Rolling Stones Roblox game goes live today, July 10—it should be live by the time you read this—and will culminate in an "epic finale show" running July 17-19. Rock on.

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JK Simmons isn't thrilled about the decision to scrap the Batgirl movie.

Speaking on the Happy, Sad, Confused podcast , Simmons reflected on his time as Commissoner Gordon in the DC universe. He technically only played him once, but that wasn't the initial plan. Zack Snyder had cast Simmons as the mustached cop in Justice League, where he had a small role and, presumably, he also would've starred in Ben Affleck's abandoned Batman film. When that fell by the wayside, he was eventually cast in Batgirl, where Michael Keaton would've reprised his role as the Caped Crusader.

The entire film was shot and largely completed, but Warner Bros. scrapped it (along with other projects) in favor of a tax write-off. That tax write-off also meant that the film can never be released. According to Simmons, even he didn't get to see it.

"It's bizarre. Apparently, one test audience saw it, and, you know, it wasn't like it was like a bad score from the test audience. It was a whatever business decision, obviously. [...] When Batgirl came along, it was an exciting prospect to be part of the origin story of Batgirl. "

Simmons was asked if he felt the movie was a misfire when he was making it, but he thought it was promising.

"We really had a good time making it and, you know, thought it was going to be a fun superhero movie," he said.

Keaton, on the other hand, joked to GQ in 2024 that he didn't care one way or another because he got paid.

"No, I didn't care one way or another. Big, fun, nice check," he joked. "I like those boys. They're nice guys," he added about Batgirl's directing duo, Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah. "I pull for them. I want them to succeed, and I think they felt very badly, and that made me feel bad. Me? I'm good."

While some reports have suggested that the film's test screening didn't go well, it does seem irrational to scrap a movie based on one test screening. There are some truly heinously bad superhero films, including ones from DC itself, so it's hard to imagine Batgirl being some unsalvagable mess. Maybe it was, but it seems more like it got caught in the crossfire of Warner Bros. trying to salvage its own business in any way it could.

Current DC Studios head Peter Safran stated after its cancellation that the Batgirl film was "not releasable," which may suggest things were more dire that we could've imagined.

"That film was not releasable, and it happens sometimes," he said. "I actually think that [president and CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery David] Zaslav and the team made a very bold and courageous decision to cancel it because it would have hurt DC. It would have hurt those people involved."

Maybe one day, somehow, Batgirl will see the light of day, but it seems extremely unlikely. The directors were locked out of the movie and don't have access to anything besides pictures and videos they took on set. Although the Snyder Cut also seemed like a longshot, there was a stronger movement behind it and Snyder himself retained access to his cut of the film after he left DC. Not to mention, the DC Universe has been rebooted, so it's likely that the current regime will just leave Batgirl in the past as to avoid confusing audiences.

Cade Onder is a freelancer for IGN's news team. He covers all things entertainment, including gaming, film, and more. You can find him on Twitter @Cade_Onder.