NHTSA's Anti-Drunk Driving Technology

NHTSA's Anti-Drunk Driving Technology


Published Date: December 20, 2023

Author: Jane R.

To prevent drunk drivers from starting cars, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in the United States has started a campaign to force automakers to install state-of-the-art anti-drunk driving technology.

This is a revolutionary step towards improving road safety. This project is a reaction to a congressional decree from 2021 that called for action to reduce the startling number of nearly 10,000 traffic fatalities per year.

In order to specifically identify alcohol impairment, the NHTSA is now investigating the integration of passive technology, such as breath- or touch-based sensors and cameras made to track eye movements.

Before requiring the use of these anti-drunk driving technology, the agency is dedicated to verifying their effectiveness. If the technology is found to be ready, a new safety standard is expected to be released by November 2024.

The NHTSA has published a "advance notice of proposed rulemaking" that describes the procedures it plans to follow in order to obtain vital data regarding the development of anti-drunk driving technology and the prerequisites.

Prominent advocacy organizations like Mothers Against Drunk Driving have endorsed this preventative measure, drawing attention to the startling figure of 13,384 alcohol-impaired driving fatalities recorded in 2021.

The NHTSA highlights that precision is essential to winning over the public to this novel strategy and plans to provide automakers a three-year window of time to adjust after the regulations are established.

Given the roughly 1 billion daily vehicle trips in the US, Acting NHTSA Administrator Ann Carlson recognizes the difficulty in reaching high accuracy to prevent false positives.

In addition, Carlson revealed a positive 4.5% drop in road fatalities in the United States in the first nine months of this year. This encouraging pattern comes after a notable spike during the COVID-19 epidemic, highlighting the significance of ongoing initiatives to improve traffic safety.

The suggested technical innovations have the potential to transform road safety standards and save many lives on American roadways as the NHTSA takes big steps towards adopting cutting-edge measures with anti-drunk driving technology to reduce drunk driving.

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