The NHTSA Will Require Anti-Drunk-Driving Technology in Future Vehicles
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has officially released a notice requiring every new vehicle purchased in the United States to use technology that could detect and prevent drunk driving.
What To Expect
According to Motor Trend, the NHTSA is calling on stakeholders and the public to submit ideas for how future vehicles could implement anti-drunk-driving technology. There are technologies available to detect driver drowsiness, such as built-in cameras that follow a driver's eyes in conjunction with sensors that track a vehicle's movement within its lane against how a driver is operating the car. People are still trying to determine how well-suited these systems will be for detecting inebriation.
There is breathalyzer technology and interlocks some motorists are court–mandated to use after receiving a DUI that potentially points a way forward. However, the issue with this is that people have different levels of impairment based on factors like alcohol tolerance, weight, and height. While a breathalyzer can measure blood–alcohol content (BAC), determining an individual's impairment level from their BAC alone is not very straightforward.
There are also different types of impairment: drunkenness, drowsiness, and distractedness. A big challenge for the NHTSA is figuring out how to stop the various forms of impaired driving using a “single performance standard.”
A preventative option from a tech perspective could be combining a vehicle's drowsiness detection system with breath detection and on-board cameras recording and doing behavior analysis. The NHTSA could mandate that readings from this tech alert drivers that they are inebriated and activate an interlock on the ignition.
However, an issue arises with this because there could be false readings. New technology often has flaws that need to be worked out, like electric vehicles (EVs) in general or autopilot systems, for example. So, false readings are likely an issue.
Alcohol-induced accidents are one of the most significant causes of roadway fatalities in the United States, with at least 10,000 deaths happening yearly. While false impairment readings would cause problems, the potential issues anti-drunk-driving tech might cause are minor compared to the fatalities it could prevent.
Another Example of Preventing Distracted Driving Through Technology
The other, unfortunately, prevalent cause of impaired driving is motorists driving while distracted by their smartphones. In October, we reported that as many as 84 percent of drivers admitted to driving while using their cellphones while also noting that the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) was looking into telematics and roadside cameras to precisely determine when, how, and where cell phone use is causing driving accidents.
It's an approach that would entail gathering cell phone data to see how a driver uses their phone while driving, along with camera footage to pinpoint the moments when drivers are most distracted by their phones.
It's another instance of modern technology being used to make roadways safer; however, that tech can only go so far, as the IIHS found that they were only 86 percent accurate when identifying distracted drivers, whereas in-person observers were 90 percent accurate in identifying distracted drivers.
