Car Makers Use Tech To Battle ‘Impaired Driving’

Cameras in the car, controls for alerts help keep an eye on the driver

The Department of Transportation’s recent conference on distracted driving drew considerable attention to the hazard posed by talking on the phone and texting while driving. By the government’s count, those activities were to blame for nearly 6,000 deaths last year.
That puts those actions on par with other forms of driver impairment, such as drunk driving and falling asleep at the wheel. While drunk driving attracts much more attention, drowsy driving causes more than 100,000 crashes every year, with 1,550 fatalities and 71,000 injuries.

All of these concerns fall under the umbrella of “impaired driving,” a problem which carmakers are increasingly using technology to detect and counteract. Technology alone cannot solve this problem, but it can help, said David Champion, director of Consumer Reports’ auto test department.

Some of the useful aids include hands-free Bluetooth phones that save the driver from searching for and picking up a phone, along with lane departure warning systems that notify the oblivious phone talker that he just left a lane and is about to sideswipe a tractor-trailer.

The real solution is to outlaw routine distracted driving and to make driving while phoning and texting socially unacceptable — the way drunk driving went from being a funny embarrassment to a criminal offense, Champion said.

“If you go back 30 years, people who drove drunk were thought of as just a good ol’ boy,” he said. “Now the one thing that would work is having punitive penalties for people who are in an accident while texting or taking on a cell phone.”

But that will take time, and it will take even longer for drivers to change their behaviors. So the immediate solution is to build cars equipped to detect drivers who are impaired by whatever cause.

In some cases, the car’s systems might directly observe the driver, studying the face and eyes for indications of fatigue, distraction or inebriation. They might employ sensors that detect the presence of alcohol. Or they can simply observe the driver’s behavior, as the rest of us frequently do, to see if the car drifts out of its lane or is slow to react to situations, such as stopped traffic ahead.

No production vehicles yet detect drivers who are texting or drunk, but already some of them can detect symptoms of those conditions. The 2010 Toyota Prius and Lexus LS 600h, for example, features the advanced Pre-Collision System with Driver Attention Monitor.

GO HERE to read more.