NTSB recommends technologies to prevent drunk driving and speeding in new vehicles

National Transportation Safety Board’s recommendation for alcohol disorder detection systems, Infrastructure Investment and Business Law It gave the Ministry of Transport three years to authorize such a feature on new vehicles. set up recommend again However, the promotion of intelligent speed adaptation systems has yet to gain wider federal support and may face resistance from US drivers accustomed to having speed limits enforced by law enforcement rather than the vehicle itself.

The NTSB’s recommendations, which cannot be implemented without the approval of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, specifically require all new vehicles to have “passive vehicle-integrated alcohol disorder detection systems, advanced driver monitoring systems, or a combination of the two, that can prevent the vehicle from starting if it detects that the driver has been affected by alcohol, or can limit.”

Reiterating a recommendation made in 2017, the NTSB also recommended that NHTSA encourage “vehicle manufacturers and consumers to adopt intelligent speed adaptation (ISA) systems to prevent speed-related crashes.”

Intelligent speed adaptation systems can range from a warning system that gives visual or audible warnings when a driver is accelerating to a system that electronically limits a vehicle’s speed. The NTSB did not specify what type of system should be adopted.

The investigation into a California crash that killed nine people, seven of them children, on New Year’s Day in 2021 led to Tuesday’s recommendations, according to the NTSB. Investigators, the agency said, “found that the SUV driver (involved in the accident) had high levels of alcohol intoxication and was driving at excessive speed.” Said.

The technologies “could prevent tens of thousands of deaths from the driving and speeding-related crashes we see each year in the United States,” NTSB President Jennifer Homendy said on Tuesday.

Thirty-two people die from alcohol-related collisions each day—more than 11,000 each year, according to the NHTSA. He reported that in 2021, deaths increased by 5%.

There are a number of technologies aimed at preventing driving impairment. being evaluated By the Department of Transportation, according to the advocacy group Mothers Against Drunk Driving. The department was given three years to require new vehicles to include “advanced drunk and disabled driving prevention technology” as part of infrastructure law passed last year with bipartisan support.

NHTSA said on Monday that it has “launched work to meet the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act’s requirement to set rules for advanced disabled driving technology in vehicles.”

Such technologies include cameras and sensors outside the vehicle that monitor driving performance, cameras and sensors inside the vehicle that monitor the driver’s head and eyes, and alcohol sensors that detect if the driver is intoxicated and then prevent the vehicle from moving.

There is forward regulation triggered privacy concerns and questions about whether systems would incorrectly classify certain people, such as the disabled, as intoxicated.

Intelligent speed adaptation systems have gained some traction in the European market. compulsory On all new cars sold there from July 2024. The new cars will either provide “gradual acoustic warning”, “gradual vibration warning”, “tactile feedback via accelerator pedal” or “speed control function”. According to the European Commission. The commission says a driver can override the ISA system.

New York City also pilots a fleet of city cars with an ISA system. City announced In August, it was announced that 50 vehicles operated by city workers will have systems that will set the vehicle’s maximum speed and “adapt to the local speed limit”. The system has an active modality that automatically slows the vehicle down and a passive modality that alerts the driver when it accelerates.

The vehicles will be powered and installed in vehicles in various city departments, and will also be tested on 14 new, all-electric Ford Mach Ess.

This story has been updated with comments from NHTSA.