NTSB Wants Alcohol Detection Systems In All New Vehicles
43
Sponsored Links
The National Traffic Safety Board (NTSB) is calling for the implementation of alcohol detection systems in all new vehicles, following an investigation into a wreck in California that resulted in nine deaths.
The crash occurred on January 1st, 2021, and was caused by an impaired driver who was found to be speeding. An SUV was traveling south, while a pickup with eight occupants was traveling north on the same highway. The SUV accelerated to almost 100 mph before veering into oncoming traffic, colliding with the pickup truck and immediately catching fire. All nine vehicle occupants were killed, seven of which were children. The driver of the SUV was found to be intoxicated at the time of the wreck.
“Technology could’ve prevented this heartbreaking crash, just as it can prevent the tens of thousands of fatalities from impaired-driving and speeding-related crashes we see in the U.S. annually,” said NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy. “We need to implement the technologies we have right here, right now to save lives.”
The investigation led NTSB to recommend several in-vehicle technologies that could limit or prevent impaired drivers from operating a motor vehicle. Such technologies include passive vehicle-integrated alcohol detection systems, advanced driver monitoring systems, or even a combination of the two. The NTSB is calling for all new vehicles to feature such technologies. Additionally, the NTSB suggested that incentivizing vehicle manufacturers, as well as consumers, to adopt intelligent speed adaptation systems that could help prevent speed-related wrecks.
Since 2000, more than 230,000 deaths have take place as a result of crashes involving alcohol-impaired drivers, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NTHSA). However, speeding is becoming more of a problem. Since 2020, a recorded 11,528 fatalities are attributed to wrecks that involved at least one speeding vehicle. The implementation of speed adaptation systems and integrated alcohol detection technologies in new vehicles could be a major step toward minimizing these threats on public roads.
Subscribe to GM Authority as we bring you the latest in automotive news coverage with a laser focus on GM news.
Making already too expensive vehicles even more expensive. Great idea.
The systems that are coming in 2026 are all software. They use the existing steering angle sensors, forward collision camera, brake and accelerator inputs to detect drunk driving patterns.
Many cars today already have a variant with drowsy/distracted driver detection, basically the same thing.
If it’s truly software and won’t add expense or issues I’m all for it. Probably don’t want it year one though as it’s bound to have quirks.
There is no excuse for driving drunk. Grow the f$+# up.
It will be on constraint with no update available.
Why do you think SW doesn’t add expense? SW Developers are probably some of the higher paid employees at OEMs. SW is not free, just not a physical item. I get paid a crap ton of money to modify existing SW, not for cars, but still, it’s not free.
No one said no expense but if the manufactures create their own software they can apply it to a couple million vehicles a year. If it cost them a million to make it…that’s a dollar or less.
Volume sir. Volume.
And the drunk gets a sober person to breathe into the device for him. Another added expense the vast majority have to pay for. Tomg
The systems that are in development are more advanced than that.
More government over-reach!!
I bet all the persons who are opposed to this life saving technology in cars have never experienced the devastation and horror caused by a drunk driver who kills or permanently disables an innocent loved one(s). This preventative technology can and should be in every car. What if it saves your life?
Yes & that’s because the public is so under-reached!
It’s pointless to vote on it: drunk driving detection is already mandated by 2026 under the infrastructure bill passed a year ago. IIHS was one of the forces pushing it.
IIHS: another Nader front group.
WTF. States still can’t figure out appropriate standards of review for driver impairment due to Marijuana and other hallucinogens. At least as big a problem in my town.
As someone who detests drunk driving and doesn’t drink at all, I find this solution to be half-baked at best. No passive system is going to detect alcohol in any meaningful way, and any technology can easily be defeated given enough effort. As for me, I’d be more concerned that this system would glitch out and claim I’m intoxicated when I’m not. What do I need to do in that situation? Get the vehicle towed? Call the company and ask nicely to let me drive my own vehicle like a free adult and not treated like a child? I really hope society figures out soon that this kind of paternalism will create more problems than it fixes.
About 30 people a day die in alcohol related automobile accidents. So, the NTSB wants people who don’t drink and drive to pay for technology for people who do drink and drive. I’m a firefighter and I have cut a lot of people out of their cars, some with open bottles. I don’t drink and drive because I see firsthand what happens. I all so don’t want to pay for this. Now 150 people die a day of fentanyl poisoning, and it would only take one person to stop it. But unfortunately, he has Alzheimer’s disease. Now that’s Ironic.
How do you get thumbs down by stating facts.
Just get rid of alcohol that should solve the whole problem of drunk driving
They tried that once in the early 20th century it didn’t work out so good, unless you were in the mafia.
And what is that decade known as? The roaring 20’s.
Note: I’m not for outlawing alcohol, but…
Making expensive vehicles SAFER JOHN .. “PRICELESS”! I would much rather have this technology in a car if it meant saving someone’s life! Your comment is selfish thinking only about me what if it was your son, daughter, wife, or anyone you know who died because of drinking and driving but they could have been saved by not driving while intoxicated! I say use the technology we have to prevent drunk driving deaths I would rather have this in my car then super Cruise.
you going to mandate every car on the road? Get your head out of your ssa!
You can go down the “let’s make everything safer and if it saves just one life” rabbit holes all you want, but at some point the line must be drawn. New vehicle prices are out of reach for most Americans. How about we focus a bit on making them more affordable instead of mandating more of everything?
Also, I’m always going to put the idiot drunk at fault. Personally in this day, driving drunk is one of the most selfish things I can imagine.
More Nanny State. I don’t like where this is headed.
I believe the Drunk Driver was an ILLEGAL ALIEN, in the United States ILLEGALLY! Maybe if Biden and the Democrats didn’t have an Open Border then the Drunk Illegal Alien Driver would not have been in the U.S. and the Wreck would Not Have Happened! But hey, let us make everyone’s lives more difficult and expensive because of the Democrats!
James. Bingo.
I was also going to mention this. A F@#$king illegal alien (Daniel Luna) with complete disregard for our laws, driving without a license and double the alcohol limit, and we have to pay for this crap.
By the way, both drivers had marijuana in their systems and many passengers were NOT wearing seat belts.
Per the Mercury News:
“FRESNO — The driver of an SUV involved in a central California crash that killed nine, including seven children, was drunk and didn’t have a license, federal investigators said Thursday in a preliminary report.
The children, who were between 6 and 15 years old, were members of two related families traveling with a 34-year-old woman in a Ford F-150 truck that was struck by a Dodge Journey SUV on New Year’s Day along rural State Route 33 in Fresno County …”
Multiple illegal alien DUI offenders will remain protected from automatic deportation in California thanks to Democratic lawmakers.
Herein lies the problem!
Daniel was merely a victim of the SUV he was driving 🤪
January 1st, 2021. Biden wasn’t in office yet. Pointing fingers in the wrong place….
That’s ridiculous, just keep making people accountable and prosecute every DUI case with mandatory jail time.
Chevy is the best!
In this day and age drug impairment is becoming the bigger issue, and harder to detect.
So what about something that detects if you’re high or eating a hamburger or texting or trying to watch a movie on your phone or putting on makeup to lipstick or lighting up a cigarette? I am all for safety but how far is this mandating thing going to go before we are mandated that we can no longer even drive or purchase a car? Its not really solving the bigger problems we have starting with the currents laws in place that let criminals go free and without bail. There has to be a better way that doesn’t punish all the millions of drivers that don’t do any of these things while diving and don’t want to pay all the extra cost these items will tack on.
Joe, the fire commissioners in my district installed a camera in every one of our fire apparatuses, it points straight at the driver’s eyes if your eyes and head look down it voices an audible “Distracted Driver” alert and starts to record so if you’re in an accident I guess it can be use against you. However, it is a total pain in the ass.
Hmmm. Seems to me that this is all about making more laws to correct things that there are already laws in place intended to prevent. Very sorry about the nine that lost their lives, but I seriously doubt that having NINE “passengers” in a pickup truck was lawful to begin with. Unregulated, unlicensed, untested, illegal drivers – and every law abiding, properly licensed LEGAL citizen in this country that owns a car will pay for it.
Look this is just a massive complicated deal that is going to cost the honest people a lot of money because of the stupidly of others.
This is just more money and more issues we will see on these cars. If you want to deal with this effectively stop treating these folks as an illness and treat them as the criminals they are.
I would not park them in a cell but I would make them go out in chain gangs to clean the highways. Make them do that for 90 days. If they kill someone lock em up and toss the key.
This was another Biden deal that he said he would do and people still elected him. The things this administration are trying to make illegal is a shame as they are over stepping their authority.
Both sides need to be held in check with laws like this.
This is the NTSB justifying their existence – nothing more – nothing less. Laws only work when there are people that follow them.
These should be selective for the addicted. I love my freedom but if I screw that up with a DUI, accept the fact I have to be baby sitted and monitored since I can’t be trusted. Actually, they shouldn’t be driving and a private Uber like company should be their transportation to document how many times they were drunk asking for a ride. They are not going to change.
Effectively this is guilty before proven innocent. The government does not have the legal right to suspect someone of drunk driving unless there is a cause for reasonable suspicion. It is a warrantless search. It is a direct violation of the 4th amendment.
It’s about time! We’ve been expecting drivers to use their judgement to not drive when their judgement is at its worst. It hasn’t worked. As the article states, the technology exists to prevent (many) impaired people from driving.
Ken Zwicker… 👍 I will admit I agree with your statement we where given a chance at free will not to make the drinking and driving mistake and we ruined it! The article also mentioned speeding which I see on a daily basis I also can’t stand tailgater’s that ride your cars bumper even when your driving the speed limit. .. slow down please!