Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) is a grassroots organization founded in 1980 with a mission to stop drunk driving. They use both public awareness programs and court monitoring activities to proactively curtail driving under the influence, but once a drunk gets in the driver seat there is not much they can do. In the future however, this may be where Cars Against Drunk Driving (CADD, yes I made it up) take over the task of keeping the inebriated off the streets.
Nissan is showcasing a concept car that is packed with a variety of sensors that will detect alcohol and also overall driver awareness. The system will lock down the ignition system if the driver fails the battery of tests.
“These new sensors check a person’s odors, sweat, and driver awareness to see if they are capable of driving their car. If they’re not quite sober, the car locks up the ignition system thereby preventing the driver from getting on the road. Odor sensors are located on the driver and passenger seats and monitor alcohol levels while the gear-shift knob has a sweat sensor which measures the driver’s perspiration levels. The Nissan concept car also has a mounted camera system which monitors alertness by eye scan. If it thinks you’re falling asleep or not paying attention to the road, the car will ring bells, and issue a voice message warning the driver to pull over to rest. Oh yes - the car seat belts will also tighten if the car thinks you’re falling asleep behind the wheel.”~ Krunker.com
Obviously there will be ways to circumvent the system and there will most assuredly be those that complain that the system may lock out a driver in the midst of a medical or safety emergency. But as far as I am concerned, systems like these will not come soon enough as standard on all cars. Alabama lost over 400 people due to drunk driving last year alone… CADD is needed now.
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I really dislike things/laws/rules etc. that limit our power of choice for ourselves.
But drunk driving continues to be a huge problem no matter what we do.....
Interesting.
and personal accountability, but having a car that will not crank because a driver is impaired doesn't seem like much of a threat to me. When I think that 400 lives a year could be saved in my state alone, most of these innocent victims not the drunks themselves, I cannot help that these kind of systems become standard.
from the NA World Conference.
I know several people who would be alive today if this technology had been in place years ago. I'm sure there would be problems -- I know I have my own "what if" questions -- but the much bigger "what if" for me is: what if those friends of mine were still alive today...
I would agree with you in giving more weight to the "what if" of saving lives.
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