Has the United States developed a tool to eliminate drunk driving after a decade of hard work?

Have you ever wondered why drunk driving remains a persistent problem despite repeated bans?

It's been almost half a month since the car accident in Chengdu, and we still haven't seen a detailed official notice. Even I can't say exactly what happened.

But when it comes to drunk driving, our auto department is quite familiar with it.

A colleague once told me how her mother ignored the warnings of relatives and friends and insisted on driving home drunk.

Her mother was conscious, spoke logically, and knew that drunk driving was wrong. However, she had a strange sense of luck and was emboldened by the alcohol.

In that intoxicated state, an ordinarily cautious female driver became quite reckless.

As expected, in addition to losing her 12 driving license points, she also got a scolding from her son that was both funny and frustrating.

What can we do? Drunk driving is already a criminal offense, but there are always people who are reckless. We can't sentence them to life imprisonment or the death penalty...

Moreover, if you don't catch drunk drivers in the act, drunk driving can be quite covert. So, how to deal with this problem is a headache not only for us but also for the whole world.

Hey, but a drunk driving detection device developed by the United States in recent days might offer a glimmer of hope.

Recently, Robert Strassburger, the president of the American Coalition for Traffic Safety (ACTS), demonstrated their newly developed alcohol safety detection system, DADSS.

From the video, we can see that this device is installed under the dashboard. Before starting the vehicle, the instrument automatically collects the driver's exhaled breath. After about 2 - 3 seconds, if the DADSS system detects alcohol, the warning light will turn red, and the vehicle won't start, effectively preventing drunk driving at the source.

The whole process takes about 5 seconds.

Robert said that the current cost of this system is about $200 - $250. As the production scale increases, the cost will continue to decrease.

It's simple and fast. According to their calculations, if every vehicle is equipped with this system in the future, drunk driving incidents could be reduced by 70%.

With such a great device, why did the Americans only introduce it now?

We checked and found that this device has been in development for more than a decade. It's only this year that there's hope for mass production.

In the early 2000s, the United States was gradually establishing a comprehensive drunk driving management system. They legislated to lower the drunk driving standard from a blood alcohol concentration of 0.10% to 0.08% (roughly equivalent to drinking three cans of beer in an hour).

In addition, they implemented "alcohol interlocks" for repeat drunk drivers, installing a breathalyzer in the vehicle. Coupled with the extensive promotion by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), civilian organizations like Remove Intoxicated Drivers (RID), and Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), they took multiple measures to combat drunk driving.

Through these combined efforts, the number of drunk driving - related fatalities in the United States gradually decreased from over 20,000 per year in the last century to about 10,000 in 2008.

With such remarkable achievements, the NHTSA began to look for ways to further reduce drunk driving crimes. At this time, a concept car from Nissan provided an example.

In 2007, Nissan developed an anti - drunk driving concept car based on their Fuga.

The gear lever of the car was equipped with a touch - sensitive alcohol sensor, and a smell sensor extended from the back of the seat. A camera was installed on the dashboard to detect the driver's blinking and was linked with an automatic seatbelt tightening device to remind the driver to focus on driving.

These pictures are quite blurry because they're from a long time ago...

The NHTSA saw this as ready - made technology. They joined forces with ACTS and a number of automakers, investing $6.5 million to start the project.

In 2008, the DADSS project officially began, with two plans from the start: the touch - based and the breath - based.

However, the development of DADSS has faced challenges. It's been a slow process.

After all, to make this device a reality, there are too many problems to overcome, from detection technology to practical design. That's why it's taken them more than a decade to develop.

Take the breath - based system as an example. Its principle is actually quite simple. It uses "Non - Dispersive Infrared" (NDIR) technology.

Alcohol and carbon dioxide molecules absorb infrared light of specific wavelengths. Using this property, the sensor emits several infrared rays into the exhaled breath. By analyzing the wavelengths reflected back to the sensor, the alcohol concentration can be calculated.

Most of us have heard that after blowing into a breathalyzer, if you're suspected of drunk driving, you still have to take a blood test to get an accurate alcohol concentration reading.

So, the question is, if the DADSS device gives an inaccurate reading and locks your car, how can we ensure its accuracy?

The accuracy problem also plagues the touch - based system. The touch - based system uses near - infrared tissue spectroscopy. Infrared light is shone on the human skin, and the alcohol concentration is determined by analyzing the chemical information in the reflected light.

According to the research of ACTS and Harvard Medical School, factors such as skin thickness, residual perfume, hand sanitizer, and even skin color can affect the measurement accuracy of the touch - based system...

So, it took them ten years to improve the accuracy from 80% to 99.9997%.

Accuracy is just one of the problems that need to be solved. To make this device widely available, it also needs to be compatible with various car models.

From the early disclosed pictures, the breath - based DADSS system was initially as large as a brick. It couldn't withstand the frequent bumps and shocks in a vehicle, and it was also inconvenient to install due to the limited space in a car. So, from the first generation to the upcoming fourth - generation hardware, ACTS has been continuously reducing the size of DADSS.

From left to right: the prototype to the fourth generation.

There are also other vehicle - specific problems such as weather resistance testing, electrical testing, and housing protection testing. Whenever the hardware is upgraded, these tests have to be redone.

In short, the NHTSA spends a seven - figure budget on DADSS every year. It's truly a painstaking process.

Anyway, although they haven't publicized the development process of DADSS much, they've finally achieved some results. They cooperated with Schneider Transportation Company in the past two years and successfully conducted a pilot project in Virginia. It seems that it won't be long before it's widely available.

Now, here comes the most crucial part.

This device is only useful if car owners install it. Should all existing cars on the market be required to install it, or only new cars in the future? Should we choose the breath - based or the touch - based system, or use them in combination? All these decisions need government guidance.

But as far as I can tell, neither the NHTSA nor the US Congress has made a clear statement.

The latest relevant document is the 2021 "Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act". Former President Biden required the Department of Transportation to accelerate the development of drunk driving prevention technology in it. All passenger cars produced after 2026 must be equipped with this device.

What happened? The NHTSA, citing being too busy, postponed the matter until 2024 and only released a proposed plan for "Advanced Drunk Driving Prevention Technology". It's similar to the drafting stage of our Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, far from even a draft for public comment.

Nowadays, after the budget cuts by the government efficiency department under Trump and Musk, the NHTSA's official website has even shut down. They're struggling to work, and no one knows when the specific regulations will be introduced.

It seems that although the technology exists, we can't rely on the Americans.

But in the NHTSA's 2024 report, we saw the word "China" in the patent citation application section. Is it possible for us to mass - produce this device?

Currently, the most common crime in China is dangerous driving. Last year, the procuratorate prosecuted 276,000 people for this crime, far exceeding the number of theft and fraud cases. Drunk driving has contributed significantly to this.

The drinking culture in social gatherings is still prevalent, and the Supreme People's Procuratorate is also troubled by it. This shows that there is a strong demand from top to bottom to eliminate drunk driving in our country.

Meanwhile, the electrification of Chinese cars provides an ideal environment for the deployment of drunk driving detection systems. The fatigue monitoring cameras and the air quality improvement by the fresh air system in cars have already achieved the technology demonstrated by the Nissan Fuga. All we need is an alcohol detection device.

Let's wait and see. I hope to see the end of drunk driving in my lifetime.

Image and data sources:

NHTSA official website

DADSS official website

Nissan official website

National Archives and Records Administration of the United