Buried deep on page 135 of a $1 trillion spending bill that mostly adds electric vehicle charging infrastructure is a small provision that could spell big trouble for automakers. Passed last year, the Jobs and Infrastructure Investment Act requires that within three years, new cars be equipped with drunk driving deterrents that automakers still don’t know how to enforce.
As reported Automotive newsthe technology to passively detect whether drivers may be drunk could be years away, though efforts are underway to deliver the technology as early as 2026.
“To be honest, I think it surprised everybody, not just at our company, but all the OEMs and Tier 1s that this legislation came out,” said Mike Franchy, US director of supplier Asahi Kasei. Automotive news.
His company is working on a detector like a breathalyzer to monitor the content of ethyl alcohol in the driver’s breath. Similar to an interlock device already on the market, the system could be embedded into a door or steering column. Car locks have been around for several years and have cost thousands to buy or can be rented for $100 or more per month. Smaller breathalyzer systems are available and can cost as little as $50, although they are portable machines that cannot disable a car’s ignition. Researchers say they may have systems to detect blood alcohol levels through touch soon, though it’s unclear when that might be available.
Alcohol-related crashes are responsible for 30% of all traffic deaths in the United States, and in 2020, the most recent year data available, were responsible for the deaths of more than 11,000 people in the roads That number is up 14 percent since 2019, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Most states have a blood alcohol content limit of 0.08 for adult drivers, although some states have a lower threshold for adult and younger drivers or a zero tolerance policy for teenage drivers and commercial
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