ROME – The United States Senate is discussing a new billion dollar bill dedicated to automotive infrastructure and among the proposed amendments, there is an explicit request to manufacturers to install passive technology inside their cars , which prevents drunk drivers from getting behind the wheel.
The proposal sent to Congress also received immediate support from the Mothers Against Drunk Driving association and from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) which pointed out as an anti-driving system in a state of intoxication, it could prevent more than nine thousand deaths a year on American roads. Further studies, always in favor of the hypothetical software developed to immobilize the vehicle if circumstances require it, have pointed out that fatal accidents related to alcohol intoxication have a direct economic cost of more than 44 billion dollars, and further repercussions on the estimated society. to 210 billion.
The numbers speak for themselves; of the 36,096 road deaths registered in the United States in 2019, 10,142 are attributable to accidents resulting from alcohol consumption and in addition to the high number of fatal accidents, the infamous Driving Under the Influence (DUI in jargon) is also the cause of one million of arrests a year carried out by the American police.
The idea of a passive technology specifically designed to contain the effects of this health and social plague had already been advanced by lawmakers in 2019 when the Reuters news agency wrote: “In the future, car manufacturers could install systems and technologies on-board capable of detecting the alcohol level through sensors on the steering wheel or by analyzing breath or eye movement ”. Two years later, the bill drawn up by the Senate forcefully returns to the issue asking the Ministry of Transport to develop a “reasonable, practicable and appropriate” standard technology. Three adjectives that, reading between the lines, promise to animate the debate on privacy, individual freedom and external interference relating to private property that such an individual control software would inevitably invalidate.
The time frame for the development of the technology is set at three years and once approved, car manufacturers would have another two years to adapt their vehicles. However, the Senate amendment does not specify the type of technology to be used, focusing instead on function
primary: “The software must passively monitor the driver’s responses and thus identify any impediments to driving”. The methods on how to actually implement include breath analysis and infrared technology capable of analyzing blood alcohol levels from the fingertips but both solutions will need further studies and validations to verify their reliability and effectiveness. for some time, the US authorities have installed an alcohol test linked to the ignition of the vehicle in the cars of drivers arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol.
Judging by the tones and net of what technology will be adopted, the legislation inherent to the automotive industry for the next decade seems to suggest that from 2026, the alcohol detector incorporated in the car could become a structural part of the vehicle, exactly as it did. in the summer of 1973 with the seat belt.
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