Video: The NHTSA Wants to Prevent DUI by Sniffing Your Breath

DUI prevention system

Most people understand the risks behind driving drunk, but some people still choose to push their luck after having a few drinks. Well, the NHSA may soon have a system in place that will proactively prevent buzzed and drunk drivers from hitting the road.

To be completely open, the NHTSA is actually working on two systems, one of which is breath based while the other is touch based. The breath-based one will essentially be a breathalyzer that sits on your car’s steering wheel or driver’s side door and catches your breath as you exhale. It then uses an infrared beam of light to determine how much alcohol is in your breath. If your blood-alcohol content is over 0.08 (the legal limit in all 50 states), then the car will not move.

The touch-based system will be mounted either in the vehicle’s ignition button or in the gear shifter. This system shines a beam of light at your finger and, like the breath-based system, uses this light to determine the amount of alcohol is in the blood. Again, if your BAC is over 0.08, then no driving for you.

What’s more, if you have an under-21 driver in your household, you can program his or her system to a zero-tolerance policy that will not allow the car to start with any traces of alcohol in his or her system. Now, this could be an issue when it comes to the breath-based system, as mouthwash with alcohol and other products with trace amounts of alcohol in them could cause a false reading.

According to a report from The Detroit News, the NHTSA has no plans to make this technology a requirement on any cars. IT does. However, plan to offer it as an option in just over five years. The testing grounds for this technology in the near future will likely be in various government vehicles.

While I appreciate the fact that the NHTSA is working on minimizing DUI, the touch-based system, like the in-car breathalyzers today, is too easy to circumvent. You can just have a sober pal push the ignition button or use a stick or pencil. If it’s on the gear shifter, you can again have a buddy shift the gears. With the breath-based system, it seems a little harder to trick, as it will constantly monitor your breathing, so you can’t just have a friend breathe into it.

Let us know what you think of this new technology in the comments below.

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