Before Self-Driving Vehicles…

 

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), part of the Department of Transportation (DOT), tells us that just before the pandemic raged forward in 2019: “Every day, about 28 people in the United States die[d] in drunk-driving crashes — that's one person every 52 minutes. In 2019, these deaths reached the lowest percentage since 1982 when NHTSA started reporting alcohol data — but still 10,142 people lost their lives.” That’s about one third of all highway fatalities. But as the pandemic ebbed, highway fatalities skyrocketed in 2021. 

“[In October], the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported that an estimated 20,160 people died in traffic collisions in the first half of 2021, the highest number since 2006. The agency has pointed to speeding, impaired driving and not wearing seatbelts as factors behind the increase.” Hope Yen and Tom Krisher for the November 10th Associated Press. Using the one third fraction noted above, that suggests that 2021 should see well over 13,000 deaths from DUI accidents.

For people convicted of DUI (“driving under the influence,” also DWI, “driving while intoxicated”), there is the fine and legal costs, the potential restrictions on a driver’s license, the increase in insurance rates and even the possibility of forfeiture and jail/prison time. Increasingly, convicted DUI offenders, who do not lose their driving privilege, are also required to outfit their vehicles with a breathalyzer control device (as pictured above) that prevents the car from being started when the driver is intoxicated. I’m sure you can picture ways such devices can be circumvented. But the death and injury of innocents are the toxic results of such inebriated drivers. 

The issue is so important, so pervasive, with vastly more injuries than the fatalities noted above, that the new infrastructure bill has carved out a mandatory technology for all vehicles manufactured after 2026 to prevent intoxicated drivers. Will the device recognize more than just alcohol? We don’t know yet. But it probably won’t be a breathalyzer, which has a strong negative popular response. Still, “Congress has created a new requirement for automakers: Find a high-tech way to keep drunk people from driving…. It’s one of the mandates alongside a burst of new spending aimed at improving auto safety in the [bipartisan] $1-trillion infrastructure package…

“Under the legislation, monitoring systems to stop intoxicated drivers would roll out in all new vehicles as early as 2026, after the Transportation Department determines the best form of technology to install in millions of vehicles and automakers are given time to comply… ‘It’s monumental,’ said Alex Otte, national president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. Otte called the package the ‘single most important legislation’ in the group’s history, a measure that marks ‘the beginning of the end of drunk driving… It will virtually eliminate the No. 1 killer on America’s roads.” AP. The new legal requirement says that this technology must “passively monitor the performance of a driver of a motor vehicle to accurately identify whether that driver may be impaired.” It may be a monitor in the vehicle, a vehicle-linked detection system on the highway or some other technology that has yet to be developed and standardized:

“Sam Abuelsamid, principal mobility analyst for Guidehouse Insights, said the most likely system to prevent drunk driving would be infrared cameras that monitor driver behavior. That technology is already being installed by automakers such as General Motors, BMW and Nissan to track driver attentiveness while using partially automated driver-assist systems… The cameras make sure a driver is watching the road, and they look for signs of drowsiness, loss of consciousness or impairment… If signs are spotted, the cars will warn the driver, and if the behavior persists, the car would turn on its hazard lights, slow down and pull to the side of the road.”  AP.

Will self-driving cars provide a longer-term alternative? DOT head Pete Buttigieg suggests eliminating the car entirely where possible has to be part of the equation: “The best way to allow people to move in ways that are better for congestion and better for climate is to give them alternatives…this is how we do right by the next generation.” DUI has been a problem ever since there have been cars on roads. Perhaps this new wave of technology solutions may just bring this activity under control.

I’m Peter Dekom, and as monitoring and tracking technology improves, we may lose a bit more of our privacy, but sometimes the result is more than worth it.