Federal safety regulators are working on technology that can be used in cars to detect alcohol by touch and breath, in order to reduce alcohol related accidents.
Nat Beuse an associate administrator for vehicle safety research at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said the alcohol detection technology is one of several systems his agency is studying.
Little is known on how it would work or which suppliers are involved, but Beuse believes an alcohol detection system integrated into vehicles would reduce the number of accidents and fatalities caused by drivers under the influence.
Throughout the last couple of years NHTSA has been making efforts to advocate technology solutions in response to the numerous accidents caused by drinking and driving. The agency states they were awarded a $2.2 million contract from safety products supplier Takata Corp. to develop a device that can measure a driver’s sobriety.
The technology is still being developed and hopes to be available for implementation by 2018.Federal officials are unaware as to how the device will work. If Alcohol is detected, the vehicle could possibly be disabled or an alert will be issued, the decision is still undetermined.
