NTSB wants all cars to come with technology to prevent drunk driving
The National Traffic Safety Board says that every new car in America should come with alcohol detection system that will prevent owners from driving their cars while drunk. On Tuesday, the agency released a report cites the need for automakers in the US to install passive surveillance systems, possibly as early as 2026.
These passive systems have very little in common with the devices most people associate with detecting alcohol in cars; no handheld Breathing Machine nor a series of coordination tests. The “non-invasive” technology that the NTSB is calling for will be fully integrated in the new models. It’s essentially a series of sensors that monitor the alcohol concentration in the air the driver exhales, along with other touch-based sensors that read blood alcohol levels using light.
Air sensors can be mounted on the steering column, behind the steering wheel, and touch sensors can be integrated into the start/stop buttons. These systems automatically check for unsafe alcohol levels and limit or prevent drivers from operating their vehicles if they are found to be impaired.
Onefollow Related pressdThe development of drunk driving technology has been underway since 2008 with research and funding primarily from NHTSA and a consortium of automakers. The joint effort has culminated with a group called Driver Alcohol Detection Systems for Safety or DADDSlike Automotive News report.
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The DADDS The group has spearheaded the advancement of technology, which the NTSB says could be licensed by automakers in the US by 2024 and be available in new cars just two years later.
Here technology is less of a hassle than I thought. If the system ends up being as unobtrusive as they seem, they can help. Despite the latest reports that traffic deaths are falling, drunk driving is still a big part of the problem – accounting for about 30% of all traffic deaths in the United States.
Follow AP, 11,654 people died in alcohol-related accidents in 2020, up 14% from the previous year, in 2019. NTSB cites a accident in 2021 killing two adults and seven children in California, after 28 years-The old drunk driver crashed his SUV into a Ford F-150.
The drunk driver was home from a New Year’s party, traveling 88 to 98 miles per hour when he veered into oncoming traffic and hit the truck head-on. The truck caught fire and bystanders were unable to reach the passengers who were not killed in the collision. The seven kids in the truck are about 6 years old and 15 five years old.
At the time of the crash, the SUV driver’s blood alcohol level was 0.21%, nearly three times the state legal limit. According to the NTSB, accidents like this are something DADSS technology can help prevent.
But the NTSB doesn’t have a regulator, which is why it only recommends installing a passive alcohol detection system on new passenger cars. The NTSB is passing its recommendation along with NHTSA, which will have to decide whether to mandate the implementation of alcohol detection systems by November 2024.