CAR MANUFACTURERS WILL BE OBLIGATED TO IMPLEMENT TECHNOLOGIES AGAINST DRUNK DRIVING

The safety standard is planned to be approved by November 2024.

The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has announced the start of development of technologies that will prevent drunk driving, The Guardian reports.

In 2021, Congress directed NHTSA to introduce the technology to try to prevent more than 10,000 highway deaths each year. The law requires a safety standard to be adopted by November 2024 if the development is ready. NHTSA has begun collecting information and public comments on how to develop, legislate, and implement future developments.

“Bring forward your best ideas, your research, and let’s join forces to quickly develop the next technology to prevent impaired driving,” said U.S. Deputy Secretary of Transportation Polly Trottenberg.

The administration has already summarized existing research and detailed exactly what technological advances are needed to develop rules for “blood alcohol detection, impairment detection (driver monitoring), or a combination of both.”

Currently at the development stage are:

Breath or touch based sensors to detect alcohol.

Eye tracking cameras to try to determine if a driver is intoxicated.

Breathalyzers that will not allow the car to start if there is ethanol vapor in the driver’s breath.

Before requiring automakers to implement the development, the agency must ensure that the technology works reliably. NHTSA will give companies a minimum of three years from rule approval to install the technology in new vehicles.

“We're trying to see if we can develop this, if there's a technology that will work every time. Public acceptance of the technology will depend on its accuracy,” said NHTSA Acting Administrator Anne Carlson.

Carlson added that about 1 billion car trips are taken every day in the United States. If the development accuracy is 99.9%, then about a million false alarms of the sensors could occur. Theoretically, NHTSA's developments could accidentally block access to the steering wheel for a person trying to urgently get to the hospital, which is unacceptable.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) President Tess Rowland noted that MADD is “very pleased” with the start of NHTSA’s developments. She acknowledged that the path to technology implementation is long and difficult, but “victims and survivors of car accidents will not let the project die.”

Let us remind you that the Ministry of Economy proposes to increase the minimum retail prices for alcoholic beverages. Consequently, prices for vodka and liqueurs may increase by 5-13%, wine products - by 40-85%, and sparkling wines and carbonated wine drinks - by 12%.