By Ryan Felton
New technologies are emerging that seek to drastically reduce fatalities and accidents involving drunken drivers.
Industry representatives and advocates say the tech in development promises to reignite progress against drunken-driving fatalities, after years of stagnation.
But these efforts face an obstacle: People might not be ready to trust the technology. Some drivers worry that the detection systems will get too much control over the car -- like being able to shut it off or not let the driver start it in the first place.
And critics are especially concerned about the possibility of false positives. What happens if you aren't impaired, but the car decides you are?
"The only thing that's preventing manufacturers putting it in vehicles for sale is a fear of false alarms," says Chuck Farmer, vice president of research at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, an industry-funded nonprofit that conducts vehicle-safety research.
Jump-starting the cause
Activists started making serious progress against impaired driving in the 1980s, a time when about 20,000 people a year died in drunken-driving-related crashes. Efforts helmed by Mothers Against Drunk Driving spurred legislative changes, which helped cut the number of deaths by about half.
Then the momentum petered out, and the fatality numbers stopped dropping. An average of 10,500 people died annually in drunken-driving accidents between 2011 and 2020, according to federal data.
The number ticked upward to more than 13,000 during the pandemic and lockdowns. Policing reductions, increased alcohol consumption and poor mental health might have contributed to the rise, according to a recent study from the highway-safety institute.
The institute and other advocacy organizations say they see the new technology as a way to start reducing drunken-driving fatalities once again. Systems that automatically prevent anyone with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08% or higher from driving could save more than 10,000 lives annually, the insurance institute estimates.
The Automotive Coalition for Traffic Safety is behind the Driver Alcohol Detection System for Safety project, or Dadss, a public-private initiative involving regulators and the coalition and supported by MADD. After developing and fine-tuning its detection system for more than 15 years, the coalition hopes to begin licensing the tech to carmakers and suppliers within the next year.
Rob Strassburger, president and chief executive of the coalition, says his organization's development efforts are "sprinting toward the finish line."
The system is designed to be passive and noninvasive. As the driver gets into the car, sensors in the steering wheel and dashboard analyze the driver's regular breathing to determine the concentration of alcohol molecules. Common breathalyzers, in contrast, require a driver to forcefully let out a deep breath.
"This technology should not hassle the sober driver, or force drivers to do anything differently than they're doing now," Strassburger says.
No guidelines are set yet on what that system will do if it gets a positive result. Strassburger says that new test vehicles for the Dadss system will allow drivers to start the vehicle, but stop the gear shifter from working -- so the car can't get out of "park."
A spokesman for Dadss says the technology is still being tested and improved, so it is too early to estimate a hypothetical false-positive rate. It isn't likely that a sober driver would receive a false positive, the spokesman says, and the system confirms any positive results with a retest.
"Don't let perfect be the enemy of the good. There is no single safety feature currently in an automobile that is being held to the same level of accuracy" that Dadss creators require for their own system, says Stephanie Manning, MADD's chief government-affairs officer.
A watchful eye
Swedish carmaker Volvo Car recently introduced an alternative approach to driver monitoring in its high-end ES90 and EX90 electric vehicles. Sensors in the steering wheel and cabin will analyze a driver's eye and head movements, as well as driving patterns, for signs of intoxication, drowsiness or other impairments.
If the system detects an issue, it can suggest the driver take a break, while also using driver-assistance technology to help the vehicle stay in its lane. If a driver doesn't respond to the alerts by becoming attentive to driving and better controlling the car, the system can stop the vehicle altogether.
Volvo spent years researching anti-drunken-driving technology, including sensors to detect a driver's blood-alcohol level, but changed direction, says Mikael Ljung Aust, Volvo senior safety technical leader. It was too complicated to get the technology to work right while avoiding the risk of false positives, he says, and if the system is wrong, a sober person might be unable to drive to an appointment or go to work.
"The system needs to do the right diagnoses billions of times yearly" around the world, he says.
Other companies are working on systems. Sweden-based Smart Eye and Australian tech firm Seeing Machines, for instance, use sensors and cameras, and analyze driving behavior, to see if a driver is intoxicated. Global auto supplier Magna has been developing a system that, like Dadss, uses sensors to measure and quantify a driver's alcohol levels.
Risks and fears
Advocates for detection systems expect federal regulators to mandate them in the near future. But are drivers prepared to get on board?
In 2024, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the nation's top auto-safety regulator, sought comment about a potential federal safety rule for impaired-driving technology. The agency received more than 18,000 responses -- an unusually high number for a proposed rule -- which the agency is still reviewing.
"There are so many scenarios where this could be bad, dangerous or co-opted," one Indiana resident wrote to NHTSA. "I will not buy a vehicle with this feature, and nor should anyone else."
The agency says it is continuing to assess the technologies under development, and it will deliver a report to Congress soon with additional details about efforts to reduce drunken-driving fatalities and the state of the technology.
"NHTSA is committed to reducing driving fatalities caused by impaired drivers using every tool at our disposal," the regulator says.
With systems that detect alcohol levels, the biggest question will be what should happen with a positive result. Some advocacy organizations suggest shutting the vehicle off altogether. The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, a car-industry group, says that different forms of impairment should dictate what type of intervention is used by the technology.
Above all else, industry representatives say that consumer acceptance has to be paramount for the tech to be deployed widely. Manning, the official at MADD, says that the risk of false positives shouldn't stop automakers from incorporating the tech into new vehicles.
"Let's start getting it deployed now and figure out how to set it so there aren't false positives," she says. "But let's not let false positives be the reason we don't solve this crime now."
Ryan Felton is a Wall Street Journal reporter in Detroit. Email him at ryan.felton@wsj.com.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 18, 2025 15:00 ET (20:00 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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