The last thing you want to do when you’ve been drinking is to get behind the wheel of your car. Maybe you believe you’re not drunk and that you are in possession of all your faculties. But the reality is a far different story. Even one or two beers can hamper your ability to immediately react to dangerous situations on the road. You might even run a red light and end up T-boning an innocent driver.
But today, new smart car tech is promising to do away with drunk driving altogether. With new high-tech devices like built-in breathalyzers that ensure your car won’t start if it senses you’ve been drinking too much, it will be possible to prevent a drunk person from getting any further than from behind the wheel of their vehicle.
Until the new anti-drunk driving capabilities become standard in all new cars, you still need to keep in mind that if you do make the mistake of driving while drunk and end up in a car wreck, you need to contact the best drunk driving accident lawyer you can find to represent you in a court of law. You also need never to drive drunk again.
That said, how are smart cars able to prevent drunk driving in the first place? According to a recent report by NPR, what if it was actually possible for your car to prevent you from drunk driving? A recent law passed in the congressional halls of Washington D.C. stipulates that beginning in a handful of years, all new cars must possess some kind of new technology that can detect and, therefore, prevent drunk driving.
Many companies are said to already be actively engaged in creating this high technology. But soon, the anti-drunk driving tech is going to be as required as seatbelts. The president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety said that he believes the new technology will potentially save more lives than airbags. More than 100,000 people lose their lives annually due to alcohol-impaired driving in the U.S. alone.
How does the new technology work?
At present, new laws on the books are said not to specify how the tech will work, but there are several approaches that are being explored today, which fall into two categories. The first are systems that can measure your blood alcohol level while you perform everyday driving tasks. The second revolves around cameras that are programmed to watch out for tell-tale signs of the driver being drunk.
With that in mind, here’s how the smart cars of the near future might prevent drunk driving for good.
Built-In Breathalyzers
According to automotive engineers, one system that’s reached the road-test stage involves sensors that can automatically take a driver’s breath samples. It then searches for traces of alcohol. This new variety of built-in breathalyzer does not require you to blow into a tube to achieve an accurate blood alcohol content (BAC) reading.
Currently referred to as the Driver Alcohol Detection System for Safety (DADSS), the joint automotive safety project between the U.S. government and private automakers is moving ahead in earnest. The technology is intended to stop the vehicle from moving if it suddenly detects the driver’s BAC is above the legal level for that particular state or district. It will also prevent the vehicle from starting in the first place.
DADSS engineers and researchers have created built-in sensors that will be integrated into the vehicle’s windshield or dash. Right now, the driver is required to exhale a breath in the general direction of the sensor to get an accurate reading. However, given time, the overall goal is for the system to sample a driver’s normal breathing pattern while distinguishing it from that of any passengers. It will then measure the breath for its alcohol content.
One U.S. freight company is said to have deployed a number of DADSS systems into their semis, which can help with testing the new technology and determine how it will stand up to the rigors of long drives on the nation’s highways.
Impairment Monitoring Cameras
Says NPR, yet another option being developed will bypass measuring BAC levels. Instead, it will focus on looking for signs of impairment by utilizing special cameras. Volvo has shown interest in utilizing the technology for the cars and trucks they will be manufacturing in the future. A spokesperson for the company said to look for the new camera tech in a couple of years but offered few details on the anti-drunk driving project.
An analyst with the market intelligence firm Guide house Insights said the major advantage of the approach is that it will utilize the same cameras the automakers have already installed in their vehicles, thereby saving money. As of now, the cameras are used exclusively to make sure drivers are focusing on the road instead of being dangerously distracted by something else.
The system is said to consist of a small steering column-mounted camera that looks directly at the driver. Because the camera is equipped with infrared tech it will see in the dark. If you are wearing sunglasses, it can still see your eyes.
Hypothetically speaking, the camera system can be repurposed to seek out other things. Many companies are said to be hopeful that a visual system can reliably detect drunk-driving impairment all by itself.
Said the founder of EyeGage, one of the companies working on new software to automatically detect intoxication by utilizing a camera that’s focused on a person’s eyes. A drunk person’s eyes tend to get glossy. Their pupils respond differently to light sources. There also exist specific involuntary movements known as nystagmus, which are used in the field by law enforcement officers on sobriety tests for the detection of alcohol use.
This is precisely what police are looking for when they ask you to follow a pen with your eyes after you’ve been pulled over. Human eyes are said to be chock full of information that can’t be hidden no matter how much a drunk driver might try.
The future for anti-drunk driving tech is promising. On the other hand, drunk driving might soon become a deadly thing of the past. The technology is not yet perfected and could take some years to implement. In the meantime, do not drink and drive. Full stop.
