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Automakers Want Cars That Won't Start If You're Drunk (washingtonpost.com)
Since 2008, a $65 million program has been designing a sophisticated new "ignition interlock" system that would only allows cars to start if it detects that the driver is sober, the Washington Post reports:
What's different -- perhaps even revolutionary -- is that the built-in ignition interlock would make an instantaneous and precise reading of every driver's blood alcohol content (BAC) level when the driver attempts to start the vehicle. Eventually, the device could become standard equipment, just like air bags. The device would take BAC samples in one of two ways. A breath-based system would gather a whiff of a driver's ambient breath. A touch-based system would analyze the touch of a driver's finger, perhaps from a vehicle's starter button or the steering wheel....
Officials behind the public-private effort to develop the technology -- known as the Driver Alcohol Detection System for Safety (DADSS) -- say the device will be ready for commercial fleets next year. Virginia's Department of Motor Vehicles became the first state agency to use it in its fleet last year, and a private company, James River Transportation, is road-testing them in its fleet of Ford Flex crossovers.... . Advocates say that if their work is successful, such a device -- which requires understanding complexities involving the science of biology, spectroscopy, electrical engineering, consumer behavior and even politics -- could save an estimated 10,000 lives a year.
"We intend to release by the end of 2020 a breath-based device for use in fleet applications and as a dealer-installed accessory," says the president of Automotive Coalition for Traffic Safety, which represents 17 automakers.
He tells the Post that the interlock devices now available are zero-tolerance -- "if any amount of alcohol is present, they will lock you out" -- and "are very difficult to use... Even people who use them regularly and are experienced in using them typically fail to provide a sufficient breath sample about 30 percent of the time... The other problem with those mouthpieces [besides some drivers seeing them as uncomfortable or intrusive] is they're plastic and you can only use them about five times... And then, the technology has to be recalibrated roughly every year, dependent upon usage. If you use it more, you have to calibrate it more frequently."
But with the new devices, "you simply sit in driver's seat and breathe normally. That's all that's required. There is no mouthpiece... We want to make a very precise very accurate measurement within a third of a second."
Officials behind the public-private effort to develop the technology -- known as the Driver Alcohol Detection System for Safety (DADSS) -- say the device will be ready for commercial fleets next year. Virginia's Department of Motor Vehicles became the first state agency to use it in its fleet last year, and a private company, James River Transportation, is road-testing them in its fleet of Ford Flex crossovers.... . Advocates say that if their work is successful, such a device -- which requires understanding complexities involving the science of biology, spectroscopy, electrical engineering, consumer behavior and even politics -- could save an estimated 10,000 lives a year.
"We intend to release by the end of 2020 a breath-based device for use in fleet applications and as a dealer-installed accessory," says the president of Automotive Coalition for Traffic Safety, which represents 17 automakers.
He tells the Post that the interlock devices now available are zero-tolerance -- "if any amount of alcohol is present, they will lock you out" -- and "are very difficult to use... Even people who use them regularly and are experienced in using them typically fail to provide a sufficient breath sample about 30 percent of the time... The other problem with those mouthpieces [besides some drivers seeing them as uncomfortable or intrusive] is they're plastic and you can only use them about five times... And then, the technology has to be recalibrated roughly every year, dependent upon usage. If you use it more, you have to calibrate it more frequently."
But with the new devices, "you simply sit in driver's seat and breathe normally. That's all that's required. There is no mouthpiece... We want to make a very precise very accurate measurement within a third of a second."
There is a difference between running the heater and the engine.
There really isn't. Virtually all car heaters use waste heat from the engine to provide heat to the passenger compartment. The only exception is electric cars.
People often freeze to death in cars anyway
Not if they can start the car and run the heater. Heat is an effective way to prevent death from hypothermia. Not sure how you could miss that particular flaw in your argument.
They also die from exhaust inhalation running the engine for hours while not moving, so the rest of your fantasy falls apart there.
Only if it's in an enclosed area. If someone made it to a bar, it's highly unlikely that their car is surrounded by snowbanks. As long as the car is in the open, the exhaust system does a pretty good job of moving the exhaust away from the car.
Maybe we can give this guy a red card.
That guy is merging at the point which is both logical, and legally mandated. That is the point at which we zipper (take one vehicle from each lane.) If you don't understand this, please stop driving, as you are certainly doing it wrong.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
You really think the people who drive pre-smogcheck cars do so because they can't afford to buy something newer? Aside from the original VW Beetle, for which parts practically fall from the sky and which can be successfully worked on by a blind drunken monkey with a $20 starter toolkit from Walgreens; the maintenance and operation of old cars is stupidly expensive. A Civic, Corolla, Accord, or Camry; OTOH, ever since the '90s, will run basically forever so long as you keep the fluids changed on-schedule. The people who go through the trouble to keep up old pre-smog mostly do so for a few reasons:
1). It's their hobby. They just like maintaining and driving classic cars... 2002s, DB5s, old 911s, original MINIs, etc. these are not their daily drivers anyway.
2). They never accepted that the 1960s are over. And damned if they're EVER going to let "the man" get them out of their VW Microbus. These people are slowly dying out.
3). They think that emissions controls are inherently evil. "CARB = Communism" Yes, I've actually seen that bumper sticker a few times. Not sure what can be said or done about these people; except that there are fortunately few enough of then that they can be considered to be edge cases and mostly ignored.
Imagine all the people...