AUTONOMOUS cars will soon boast technology that will stop the vehicle if it thinks the driver is drunk or impaired.
The aim is to reduce the number of accidents and fatalities that cost more than 10,000 lives each year from drunk driving.
Per National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, approximately one-third of car accidents in the US involve drunk driving and about 28 people die every day from drunk-driving car crashes.
With alcohol reducing your brain functioning and muscle coordination, it is incredibly dangerous to put yourself on the road when induced.
In most states in America, it is illegal to drive with a Blood Alcohol Concentration of 0.08 or higher.
To help alleviate this tragic reality, the NHTSA is working on building technology that will monitor drunk and impaired driving by the end of the decade.
“What it would do is to be able to detect the things that are common to drunk and impaired drivers – eye movement, lane crossings – that would automatically either stop or move the car off the road,” shared US Rep. Jan Schakowsky with WTTW.
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“It also could include requiring before even starting a car, a breathalyzer test.”
“And then the auto companies would have a maximum of three years to make sure that they’re in all new cars.”
Drunk and impaired driving is harmful to not only the driver but also other sober people on the road.
Sheila Lockwood from Wisconsin faced a tragedy back in 2018 when her son Austin was killed by a drunken driver, just a few weeks after his 23rd birthday.
“I never want another family to have to go through what we’ve been through,” shared Lockwood with WTTW.
“No one has the right to be on the road impaired and take another life. No one has that right. If you don’t want to wear a seat belt, unfortunately, your life might be in danger. But driving impaired is completely different because now you put other lives at risk.”
With such technology, drunken drivers will not be able to start the engine and get themselves on the road.
However, Jay Stanley of the American Civil Liberties Union has some privacy concerns with such automation.
“Modern cars are collecting information from the performance of the car itself to your location, to information from your entertainment system when you connect your phone to it,” shared Stanley with WTTW.
By potentially sharing your personal stats and bodily issues, it becomes quite a concern thinking about who gets access to the private information.
Since the new technology is aimed to provide safety, Stanley strongly believes in the privacy protection of drivers.
Head of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety Cathy Chase also announced that these privacy concerns need to be protected and that it is important to work on developing such technology.
By working with various organizations to ensure privacy protection for individuals, the new technology is estimated to arrive by 2026, with a possibility of delay.