Technologies in cars that could assist with drunk driving prevention have been in development for more than a decade now. However, it finally looks as though these preventative measures may be hitting the streets sooner than we thought.
According to the Stats Canada website, drunk driving in Canada has been on a steady incline since 2011. The “2019 Impaired Driving in Canada” report stated that “police reported impaired driving at its highest level in nearly 10 years.”
According to a news article on the WTHR website, a news channel out of Indianapolis, there are Driver Alcohol Detection System for Safety (DADSS) technologies in development out of a Boston- area lab that could prevent drunk drivers from even starting a car, to begin with.
New drunk driving prevention technologies
There are two types of technologies in the works; one that can capture a person’s breath and pull it into a sensor to measure blood alcohol concentration (BAC) that way.
The second one would measure your BAC through the push ignition button on a car, with “tiny lasers to shine a beam of light onto your finger, and that special light reads the alcohol level below your skin’s surface.”
The idea is to have the reading done within the blink of an eye, as not to inconvenience drivers, so those who are below the legal limit can be on their way as quickly as they would be without a DADSS sensor in the car.
Because of this, the latter seems a lot more plausible.
Sooner rather than later
According to the WTHR article, who spoke with Rob Strassburger, the president of a non-profit group involved in creating these systems, the Automotive Coalition for Traffic Safety (ACTS), these drunk driving prevention technologies could become a reality a lot sooner than many may have thought.
He said, “the group’s ultimate goal is to get the alcohol sensors into passenger cars within the next three years – and eventually into every vehicle produced to hopefully eliminate drunk driving deaths within our lifetime.”
It helps that ACTS has been backed by several large car manufacturers, including GM, Ford, Toyota, Honda and BMW, who have contributed $50 million to their development.
Still a few questions
While some people would consider installing these systems into vehicles a life-changing technology, others, specifically some trade associations throughout the USA, still have a cause for concern.
The ones that represent trucking and rental car companies say they are worried about installing DADSS into vehicles because it could lead to workers’ dismay. More specifically stated, “A lot of our companies walk a very fine line about Big Brother watching [their drivers].”
The American Beverage Institute raised the concern of the systems not working accurately 100 percent of the time, leading to drunk drivers leaving while legal drivers can not.
Life-changing sensors
Whether disagreeing with the DADSS sensors or thinking they are incredible, it is hard to argue with the fact that these will certainly be life-changing.
As stated earlier in this blog post, the goal is to start installing these drunk driving prevention devices in passenger vehicles later this year; however, that estimate is for the United States. There is no timeline for when DADSS sensors will be introduced onto Canadian roads.