Using Epic Tech to Stop Drunk Driving
President Biden Targets Intoxicated Drivers
$1 Trillion Infrastructure Bill
Tucked into President Joe Biden's $1 trillion Infrastructure package is a big initiative to fight drunk driving with highly advanced technology. The push against drunk driving is not just a number of public service announcements with warnings not to drive drunk on the road. The law has teeth and requires automakers by 2026 to install new technologies in new cars that detect and prevent intoxicated drivers from hitting the roads.
New Law with Teeth
Currently in the US, 10,000 people a year are needlessly killed in drunk driving accidents and nearly 300,000 are injured. Drunk drivers cause 30% of all traffic deaths. Biden's plan is designed to cut those deaths to 600 a year. The innovative technologies being considered are smart sensors embedded in the car that detect and measure the driver's alcohol level in their breath and blood. Also under consideration are infrared cameras in the car similar to those used currently by GM to monitor driver attention when driver assistance capabilities are in use. The cameras would be programmed to detect signs of drunkenness.
Questions and Privacy Concerns
There are a number of questions concerning the Biden plan. Would the car be disabled from driving if the driver is intoxicated or impaired? Congress has tasked automakers to find new technologies to prevent intoxicated drivers from driving. And what about privacy issues? Some are arguing that the new technologies would be an invasion of their privacy. Nonetheless, President Biden will sign the $1 trillion Infrastructure bill and drunk driving prevention plan into law on Monday. The President of Mothers Against Drunk Driving Alex Otte calls the mandate "the most important legislation" to combat drunk driving in history. Interestingly, some automakers like Volvo and Nissan are testing technologies to prevent drunk and impaired drivers from taking the wheel.
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