Toyota to Introduce Anti Drunk Driving Gadgets in Cars
If the R&D folks at Toyota are successful, we may soon have cars outfitted with a breathalyzer device that can warn motorists if they are too drunk to drive, or in worst cases, simply shut down the ignition, preventing a motorist from driving away.
The automaker has announced that it is developing the gadget which features a breathalyzer and a digital camera that will take a picture of the motorist’s face for identification purposes. In case the driver is found to have too much alcohol on his breath, then the device will either warn him, or shut down the ignition system, depending on the levels of alcohol detected. Toyota says that it will soon begin testing the gadgets on trucks. Besides Toyota, Nisan Motor is also developing a similar gadget.Nisan’s gadget is part of its goal of reducing the number of fatalities or serious injuries in accidents involving its vehicles by half, by the year 2015.
As DeKalb County drunk driving accident lawyers, we find it encouraging that automakers are developing mechanisms that can prevent intoxicated drivers from driving. However, using these gadgets to actually reduce drunk driving accident rates could prove to be far more difficult. Even if these features do ultimately make it to passenger vehicles, they may first be introduced as an optional feature. Getting these features to become standard equipment is going to take plenty of legislative muscle.
However, trucking companies, bus companies or other fleet owners may be able to use these devices with good results. Commercial vehicle accidents are often traced to intoxicated drivers, and fleet owners may benefit from such devices. In fact, Toyota says that the gadget will alert fleet owners if a driver is detected with excessive amounts of alcohol on his breath.