This could come as really bad news for all those people who like to get a few drinks after work and after still get into their car and carelessly drive home, irrespective of how much they’ve drunk.
What they maybe are not aware of is the fact that drunk driving makes about 10,000 victims every year all over the United States. According to statistics, every 58 minutes a person dies in the U.S. because of drunk driving.
However, technology might be here to save the day, as a new system was developed to prevent your car from working if you’ve drunk above the admitted limit.
The Driver Alcohol Detection System for Safety (DADSS) was designed by a team of auto-makers in collaboration with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). It is the first type of system that can be implemented in a car and is meant to stop drunk driving.
It is quite efficient as well. At an event held in Washington D.C., on Thursday, the 4th of June, where it was first presented, it was able to detect the alcohol concentration in the blood above 0.08 in less than a second. It was designed to detect alcohol concentration higher than 0.08 threshold because that is currently the legal limit in the U.S.
Representatives of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said that they are quite eager to put this system to good use in people’s cars: “soon, we might have a technology that essentially takes the keys out of drunk drivers’ hands before they can hurt or kill our neighbors and loved ones,” said the head of NHTSA, Mark Rosekind.
According to him, the new system will be available in about five years and it will be regarded as a very good safety option for drivers.
The project’s website says that the system is extremely accurate and it is able to tell which the driver’s breath is, without confusing it with that of other passengers.
An alternate version could use the driver’s fingertip to measure the alcohol concentration in the blood under the skin.
Ambitious as it may sound, this project is happening because many officials want to see the technology implemented in people’s cars. While some say it will be optional for drivers who want to take more safety measures, others say the goal is to make it mandatory in order for it to be useful.
Image Source: psychologytoday
