How anti-drunk driving tech will soon protect us on the road
Smart features in our cars could be a game changer in preventing accidents
How driving monitoring systems work
Driving monitoring and assistance systems(DMAS) are largely automatic and unobtrusive, operating with little to no active driver input.
These systems monitor things such as steering, braking and driving trajectory, enabling the car to “infer” the driver’s alertness and activate warnings or even corrective action, such as autonomous emergency braking, where necessary.
More recent advancements in DMAS have focused on the driver specifically, using real-time video to track things such as head position, eyelid closure and eye gaze direction to detect driver impairment.
In an emergency situation, these systems can alsowork togetherto prevent a crash. The cameras can establish a driver’s impairment, for example, while the automated driving technology steers the vehicle to safety.
Such technologies have been been integrated into vehicles since theearly 2000s, primarily to monitor fatigue and distraction. Today, most new vehicles come with such systems and they’ve becomeincreasingly sophisticated.
In the European Union,DMAS technology will be requiredin all new cars from this July.China is alsowell on its way to requiring it in all new vehicles.
New technologies to target drink driving specifically
Other technologies are being developed to target drink driving more specifically through detection systems that use alcohol sensors.
One is abreath-based systemthat can determine a driver’s blood alcohol content from normal breathing in the car. Another is atouch-based systemthat uses sensors in the ignition button or gear shift to determine a driver’s blood alcohol content below the skin surface.
If either system determines the driver is impaired or over the legal limit, it will take action. This could mean not allowing the car to start or move, giving the driver a warning or actively pulling the driver off the road.
This new technology will beavailablefor open licensing in commercial vehicles later this year.
Some critics have voiced concerns about thereliability of such systems, as well asprivacy issuesrelated to how driver data is collected and used.
Others have decried the loss of freedom and inconvenience that might result from system failures.
How our current drink-driving approach is failing
Yet, this new technology may be a vast improvement on our current system for policing drink driving, which is expensive, unreliable and hasn’t been effective in stamping out the problem.
Australia and other countries rely largely on impairment tests following random or “probable cause” police stops or from systematic police roadblocks. The very randomness of these interventions limits their effectiveness, especially innon-urban environments. Punitive measures such as prison time alsodo not appear to have an impact, particularly with repeat offenders.
Additionally, the breath analysis tests used by policemay be flawedand are subject to human error.
Our current enforcement methods can also infringe on people’s rights and contribute to discriminatory practices through theover-policingof specific areas or minority groups.
The current approach is also unable to recognize thevarious cultural, socio-economic, demographic and other factorsthat lead to harmful alcohol and drug use, impaired driving and subsequent interaction with the criminal justice system.
For example, while Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are less likely to drink alcohol than other Australians, those who do are more likely todrink at dangerous levels, have significantly higherdrink-driving conviction ratesand beover-representedin alcohol-related road crashes.
Research has suggesteda range of contributing factors for these higher rates, many of which are grounded in the long history of colonial violence, mistreatment and dispossession of First Nations peoples.
While a passive driver impairment detection system will not directly address such causal factors, these technologies will at least reduce the likelihood of people’s interactions with the criminal justice system and subsequent legal repercussions, which can have lifelong consequences.
A reduced focus on reactive and punitive responses should create more opportunity for attention to social, cultural and health-based interventions. This is particularly relevant when we consider the role of alcohol dependence in drink driving, and the fact many drink drivers face a range of social, economic and health problems, especially repeat offenders.
Technological design innovations have been used successfully toprevent car thefts. So, if the privacy concerns can be addressed and managed, these systems may be a way to curb drink driving at a reduced financial cost to communities, while also minimizing the harms caused by our current legal framework.
This article byKyle J.D. Mulrooney, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, Co-director of the Centre for Rural Criminology,University of New EnglandandGuy C. Charlton, Associate Professor,University of New England, is republished fromThe Conversationunder a Creative Commons license. Read theoriginal article.
Story byThe Conversation
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