Then, under a bill to be passed by the U.S. Senate the vehicle if the user has been drinking excessively will be able to turn off automatically.
While many believe the bill could save thousands of lives, some worry that it may cross moral boundaries and raise civil rights issues.
In essence, the proposal is to develop technology that can passively monitor the driver to detect damage or blood alcohol levels and prevent the vehicle from operating if the criteria are not met.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates that drunk driving causes 10,000 deaths a year in the U.S., while U.S. police departments arrest about 1 million people a year for drunk driving.
However, the NHTSA has warned that any monitoring system of this type should be ” seamless, accurate and discreet for the sober driver.”
If the bill is passed and becomes law, it would mandate that ” advanced technology to prevent drunk driving must be a basic equipment in all new passenger vehicles.”
However, it’s worth noting that this technology also raises ethical issues about citizen surveillance, even if the surveillance serves to curb a social problem that cost $ 44 billion, according to a 2010 study.
Wolf Schaffer, professor of technology and society at Stony Brook University, said: “it’s a policy issue that also has ethical implications. Cars are now increasingly “programmed” and this raises questions of responsibility in terms of the car’s actions. Is it the developer? the manufacturer? the person who bought the car?”