MOTOR MOUTH
TIME FOR BIG BROTHER TO PULL TRIGGER ON IGNITION LOCKS
Could a mere starter button turn out to be the singularly most important automotive safety advancement of the 21st century? Could the simple act of starting a car guarantee — not help, not mitigate, or any of the other weasel-clauses engineers must use these days to placate lawyers, but guarantee — that fully one-third of the deaths on our roads would be immediately and forever eradicated?
No, I am not talking about the autonomous automobile, those selfdriving wonders that starry-eyed futurists claim will eliminate collisions, make traffic flow fluidly and reduce fuel consumption. Nor is this the recent announcement of an automakers’ coalition — 20 and counting, with only a few exotics such as Lotus and Aston Martin abstaining — that promises automatic emergency braking by the year 2022. No, what Dr. Bud Zaouk, technical manager of the Driver Alcohol Detection System for Safety (DADSS) organization wants to do is eliminate the most tragic automobile fatalities of all, the victims of drunk driving.
In theory, his solution is simple: prevent the car from starting if it detects the driver is under the influence. Indeed, many provinces — Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia and Alberta, for instance — and all 50 U.S. states already have programs that install interlock devices for those previously convicted of impaired driving.
In practice, it may turn out to be one of the most difficult technical challenges this side of making a car drive itself. Most problematic is consumers won’t consent to blowing into a traditional breathalyzer device in order to start their cars; even Big Brother realizes there’s a limit to our servitude.
The trick, then, is to make the system as unobtrusive as possible.
There are two solutions and they are so discreet that, were you not warned of their incorporation, you’d never know they existed. Essentially, DADSS is proposing one system that remotely measures the ethanol content of our breath — much as a breathalyzer does — via a sensor either in the roof or on the steering column. The technology for measuring alcohol content — mid-range infrared light shining on breath particles to determine the relative concentration of carbon dioxide to alcohol — is nothing new. The challenge is to get the flow of our breath to a remote sensor despite all the air currents — air conditioning, open windows, etc. — in a car’s cabin. Current prototypes can do so two to three centimetres from our mouths, but they need to be 60 to 90 cm away to be completely hidden.
Indeed, although DADSS is pursuing both systems individually — Europe’s Autoliv is developing the breath sampler and Takata/TruTouch the start-button interlock — Zaouk says “we could find a way of making them complementary.”
He notes that enterprising drunks — is it not amazing how creative the human mind can still be after half a bottle of tequila? — may get a sober friend to start the car in their stead. Zaouk promises that the system “will have advanced sensors to measure and isolate readings from the driver only.”
In the end, the starter interlock may be used to prevent starting if it detects blood-alcohol concentration higher than 80 milligrams per 100 millilitres of blood, and the breath analyzer as a fail-safe if tipsy drivers try the old switcheroo.
So far, 17 manufacturers are working with DADSS, and the program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation. Initially, such systems are sure to be offered as options. Indeed, the primary targeted consumer may be parents of teens just starting to drive.
The systems are said to be customizable to allow zero tolerance, so young drivers can’t start the car unless their blood is completely devoid of alcohol — mandatory in many jurisdictions. Nonetheless, it should come as no surprise that, should this technology become reliable, it could someday become mandatory. Vision Zero notes that “in time, it could become a standard fitting for all cars.”
More than 10,000 people died in the U.S. in 2013 as a direct result of driving under the influence, as do about 1,000 in Canada annually. That is almost one-third of all automobile-related fatalities.
Like it or not, we are coming to an age where Big Brother is going to exercise a heavier hand on what we do behind the wheel. We will either learn to drive more safely or the right to drive will be taken away. If — a big “if” considering how the industry is rushing to the fully autonomous automobile — we will be allowed to drive our cars in the not-too-distant future, one of the conditions will almost assuredly be a DADSS-like alcohol interlock ignition system.
It can’t come too soon, in my opinion.