Thread: Toyota creating alcohol detection system

TOKYO - Toyota Motor Corp. is developing a fail-safe system for cars that detects drunken drivers and automatically shuts the vehicle down if sensors pick up signs of excessive alcohol consumption, a news report said Wednesday.

Cars fitted with the detection system will not start if sweat sensors in the driving wheel detect high levels of alcohol in the driver's bloodstream, according to a report carried by the mass-circulation daily, Asahi Shimbun.

The system could also kick in if the sensors detect abnormal steering, or if a special camera shows that the driver's pupils are not in focus. The car is then slowed to a halt, the report said.

The world's No. 2 automaker hopes to fit cars with the system by the end of 2009, according to the report. Calls to Toyota's headquarters in Nagoya rang unanswered on Wednesday, a public holiday.

Nissan Motor Co., another Japanese car manufacturer, has already been experimenting with breathalyzer-like devices that could detect if a driver was drunken. Similar technologies, such as alcohol ignition interlocks, are in use in the U.S. and elsewhere.

Concerns over drunken driving have surged in Japan following a series of alcohol-related accidents last year. In August, a drunken driver collided with another vehicle carrying a family of five, plunging them off a bridge and killing three children.

The incident prompted stepped-up roadside spot checks by police, who also plan to stiffen penalties for drunken driving.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16449687/

This is already existing technology.
I remember a story on this a few years back as a deterrent to driving drunk, but nothing really come out of it.

If you knew your were going to the bar to get blitzed and knew you were going to be driving yourself home, wouldn't you take another car? I don't think it will work unless it is a law that all cars have to have a breathalizer installed. Like seat belts. People would just find a way to get around them then.
:-

"Irwin" wrote:

If you knew your were going to the bar to get blitzed and knew you were going to be driving yourself home, wouldn't you take another car? I don't think it will work unless it is a law that all cars have to have a breathalizer installed. Like seat belts. People would just find a way to get around them then.
:-\

I don't know man.. I don't think people would buy the car if they plan to avoid that

Atleast a majority of the people I would imagine..





One Love

"Irwin" wrote:

If you knew your were going to the bar to get blitzed and knew you were going to be driving yourself home, wouldn't you take another car? I don't think it will work unless it is a law that all cars have to have a breathalizer installed. Like seat belts. People would just find a way to get around them then.
:-\

Depends if they have multiple cars or not...

The system I heard about was installed after market by court order on people who have a history of DUIs.
They could take the option of having the breathalizer installed or doing jail time.
Most chose the brethalizer.
I wish I knew how it turned out in the test phase, but it has been almost a decade since I got off the job, and I didn't really follow up on this one.

I always thought they could just get someone else to blow for them... but I guess that would open up a lot of liability issues to the sober person who enabled them to drive, so that could be a deterrent.

Here is the website of the device I saw in use.
Apparently it has done fairly well.
There was talk one time about putting these on commercial airplanes too.

http://www.smartstartinc.com/

Haha like in the movie 40 Year Old Virgin

What will Packer Fans do now?