The world’s leading automakers, along with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, late last week unveiled two types of passive sensors that measure the blood-alcohol level of auto drivers with infrared light. It’s technology that was initially developed to aid in the detection of terrorist bombs, but for a cost of just $200 per vehicle — the same as an air bag — it can unobtrusively analyze alcohol in the driver’s breath and blood.
There are two types of sensors: touch-based and breath-based.
The breath-based system, developed by Swedish automotive tech company Autoliv Development, allows drivers to enter a vehicle and breathe as they normally would. The driver’s breath is pulled into sensors located in the driver’s-side door or steering column. A beam of infrared light is then directed at the molecules in the breath. Since carbon dioxide and alcohol molecules absorb different amounts of light, the sensors can compare the two, making it easy to measure precise levels at even small concentrations.
Touch sensors read the driver’s blood alcohol level by shining a light onto the finger via the ignition or gear shift. Federal officials say the technology works in less than a second, automatically shutting down the car if the alcohol level of the driver exceeds .08 — the legal limit in all 50 states.
When the technology comes to market, different settings will be available for junior drivers (for which no amount of alcohol in the blood is legal), commercial vehicles, bus drivers and other specialized drivers.
Automakers say you’ll be able to purchase this as an option, just like emergency brake assist and lane departure warnings. Although the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says there are no plans to mandate the technology, here are just three reasons we should:
• Each year in America, drunken driving claims more than 10,000 lives and costs the U.S. approximately $199 billion.
• Alcohol-impaired driving fatalities account for more than one-third of all motor vehicle traffic fatalities in the United States.
• In 2013, 17 percent of the fatalities among children age 14 and younger occurred in alcohol-impaired-driving crashes.
Even if driver blood-alcohol levels can be limited to just the legal limit of more than 0.08 percent, approximately 7,000 lives could be saved annually, according to an analysis by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The only people who could possibly have a problem with this new technology are DUI defense attorneys. But their protests are likely to be drowned out by everyone from victims to automakers, insurance lobbyists and more.
©2015 the Boston Herald. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
