Alliance for Automotive Innovation will establish a new consortium dedicated to reducing drunk and impaired driving on U.S. roads – the cause of one-third of U.S. roadway fatalities every year.
In the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Congress directed the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to establish a vehicle safety rule requiring the installation of “advanced drunk and impaired driving prevention technology” in new passenger vehicles.
Drunk/impaired driving prevention technologies currently under development include: in-vehicle sensors and cameras, breath and touch-based alcohol detection systems, and driver warning and alert systems.
John Bozzella, president and CEO of Alliance for Automotive Innovation, said: “More than forty-thousand fatalities a year on U.S. roadways is a shocking statistic. Drunk driving contributes to almost one-third of those deaths. We all have an obligation to reverse this troubling trend.”
NHTSA’s deadline to finalize the rule was November 15, 2024. The agency received more than 18,000 comments on its proposal.
Among the recurring themes in the submitted comments: confusion about how these technologies will work to reduce drunk driving and whether they will be accepted and/or adopted by the driving public.
Alliance for Automotive Innovation and other organizations that join the consortium will pool resources and fund studies on these themes and other questions reflected in the public comments.
- What is the best way to communicate with consumers about these new vehicle technologies?
- Should drunk driving prevention systems completely disable a vehicle if alcohol is detected?
- How should the vehicle respond if alcohol is detected during a trip and the vehicle is travelling at a high rate of speed?
Bozzella added: “Automakers are making major investments in research, development and testing of drunk and impaired driving technology using sensors, cameras and warning systems. But anytime the government requires vehicle technology, important questions should be asked. Like how does this technology work – in the real world? Answering those questions is essential – otherwise the technology may be rejected by drivers. That’s a result nobody wants. Our research consortium will help NHTSA fill those knowledge gaps.”
- March 6, 2024: Alliance for Automotive Innovation comments on NHTSA’s Advanced Impaired Driving Prevention Technology proposal.
- In 2024, Alliance for Automotive Innovation requested House and Senate Appropriations Committees appropriate $5 million to conduct consumer acceptance research on driver impairment technology.
