This month, the Alcohol Detection System (ADS) took a giant step out of the lab and into the real world with the launch of the in-car testing in Virginia. In a news conference on September 10, Governor Northam of Virginia launched the Driven to Protect public-private partnership, which is the first between a state government and the DADSS Program.

The event featured remarks from Virginia Governor Ralph Northam; Shannon Valentine, Virginia Secretary of Transportation; Richard D. Holcomb, Commissioner of Virginia DMV; Stephen Story, President, James River Transportation; and Robert Strassburger, President and CEO, Automotive Coalition for Traffic Safety (ACTS). After the program, our honored guests also got an up-close look at the technology in action.

As part of the initiative, Driven to Protect is partnering with James River Transportation, a Virginia transportation leader based in Richmond for almost 100 years, to conduct some of the first in-vehicle, on-road test trials with prototype sensors in their vehicles. The first Ford Flex vehicles equipped with the Alcohol Detection System in the James River commercial fleet started operating from Richmond International Airport and Norfolk International Airport, taking clients wherever they need to go seamlessly and integrating the prototype technology collecting real-world operational data throughout the ride.

The feedback and data collected from drivers and passengers will be invaluable in finalizing the ADS technology as it is prepared for widespread commercialization. In just its first three weeks, the James River vehicles accumulated over 10,000 miles and the ADS sensors were in operation over 1,000 hours.

Attendees also got a chance to see new developments and prototypes like the BB-13 which is equipped with a proprietary system that allows the driver to start the vehicle and administer a sample for the Alcohol Detection System by simply sitting in the seat and giving a voice command. Check out Governor Northam trying it for himself below:

For more information about the Driven to Protect initiative, you can visit 

Read more about the September 10 event here:

Northam announces new initiative to curb drunk driving

‘Driven to Protect:’ First of its technology partnership aims to combat drunk driving

Virginia becomes testing ground for new drunk driver sensor

The Launch of the Driven To Protect Public-Private Partnership

Driven to Protect partnership between Virginia DMV, James River Transportation, and automakers is the first of its kind.

RICHMOND—In a news conference held today, Governor Northam launched the Driven to Protect public-private partnership that is developing technology to eliminate drunk driving and save lives on Virginia roads. The partnership is the first between a state government and the Driver Alcohol Detection System for Safety Program (DADSS) to deploy in-vehicle alcohol detection sensors (ADS), which will determine when a driver is impaired with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) at or above the legal limit of 0.08 percent.

“Virginia’s leadership in both public safety and technological innovation makes us a natural partner to help deploy and implement this lifesaving technology,” said Governor Ralph Northam. “The Driven to Protect initiative will help combat drunk driving through innovative vehicle-based solutions that complement existing, tried-and-true traffic safety initiatives to save lives.”

“In 2017, 248 people were killed and 4,430 injured on Virginia’s roadways in alcohol-impaired crashes. Safety is our top priority,” said Secretary of Transportation Shannon Valentine. “DADSS holds the potential to be an integral part of making our roadways safer for all Virginians.”

As part of the initiative, Driven to Protect is partnering with 

, a transportation leader in the Richmond area for almost 100 years, to conduct some of the first in-vehicle, on-road test trials with prototype sensors in their vehicles.

Beginning last month, the first Ford Flex vehicles in the James River commercial fleet started operating from Richmond International Airport and Norfolk International Airport, taking clients wherever they need to go seamlessly and integrating the prototype technology collecting real-world operational data throughout the ride. The feedback and data collected from drivers and passengers will be invaluable in finalizing the ADS technology as it is prepared for widespread commercialization. In just the last three weeks, the James River vehicles have accumulated over 10,000 miles and the ADS sensors have been in operation over 1,000 hours.

“James River Transportation has been taking Virginians where they need to go for nearly a century and the safety of our passengers has always been of paramount importance,” said James River Transportation President Stephen Story. “We are very excited to partner with the Virginia DMV and the DADSS Program to be the first in the world to road test this safety technology in advance of it being introduced to the driving public.”

“We are developing an unobtrusive system that doesn’t hassle sober drivers to help prevent drunk driving and save lives,” said President and CEO of the Automotive Coalition for Traffic Safety Rob Strassburger. “The Alcohol Detection System will be offered voluntarily as a consumer option in the same way that other advanced vehicle technology features, such as lane departure warning or automatic emergency braking are offered.”

The alcohol detection system works by measuring the alcohol (ethanol) level present in a driver’s naturally exhaled breath. A small sensor analyzes only the breath molecules of the driver using infrared light. The sensor would be programmable to a zero-tolerance policy for parents of teen drivers, or to a BAC of 0.08 percent.

DMV Commissioner Richard D. Holcomb said, “In addition to the valuable real-world information engineers will get from the James River pilot, we are working to help raise awareness of this life-saving technology.”

The DADSS Program brings together the Automotive Coalition for Traffic Safety (ACTS), a nonprofit organization wholly funded by the world’s leading automakers, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), and the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles, in one of the most important government and private sector partnerships in recent years. Public-private partnerships like DADSS have led to innovations that enhance our everyday lives, such as the internet, GPS and the microchip.

Learn more about the Driven to Protect Initiative at driventoprotect.org.

Governor Northam Launches First Real-World Testing of Innovative, In-Car Alcohol Detection Technology to Save Lives

Despite deaths from cell phones and other tech distractions, a huge percentage of the carnage on America’s roads is still due to drinking and driving. Out of the 37,461 people killed on the roads in 2016, 10,497 people—nearly 30 percent—died because they were, or someone else was, drunk. An innovative way is emerging to cut that death toll, and it highlights the burgeoning issues of regulating autonomous vehicle (AV) technology.

Government, academia, and the private sector have long collaborated on a technological breakthrough to reduce drunk-driving deaths. For a decade, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the auto industry’s Automotive Coalition for Traffic Safety (ACTS) have partnered to support the commercial research and development of something called DADSS—Driver Alcohol Detection System for Safety.

“It began with a simple question,” says Robert Strassburger, head of ACTS. “What if we could limit driver blood-alcohol contents to less than the 0.08 legal limit? . . . We have made a lot of progress over the past 30 years”—in the early 1980s, drunk-driving deaths were half the nation’s car-related total, not a third—“but as a percentage, I think that number is pretty significant.” Drunk drivers are a stubborn population: “Probably one-eighth of 1 percent of drivers in this country [produce] 30 percent of the deaths,” Strassburger notes. For these people, it’s hard to reduce that number with traditional traffic-safety programs like education and deterrence.

DADSS would reduce drunk driving through automated, passive data collection and interpretation. The technology works in one of two noninvasive ways. A would-be driver gets into a car and puts his finger on a sensor. Within a fraction of a second, a refracted signal “tells us the alcohol concentration through your finger,” says Bud Zaouk, program manager.

The other sensor is breath-based, based on technology that can differentiate between a driver and a passenger and identify the alcohol concentration in carbon-dioxide exhalation. A computer can use the information provided by the sensors to disable a vehicle’s movement capability (you could still turn the vehicle on for warmth or communication, and the computer wouldn’t record the data for posterity).

The technology evolved in part fortuitously. Inlight Solutions, a company doing blood-glucose work to study how to test diabetics through noninvasive procedures, noticed that one test subject at the University of New Mexico always yielded skewed results, and “it turned out he was showing up to the test drunk,” says Strassburger. The technology has improved markedly over the 15 years. The DADSS venture does much of its research in Massachusetts, drawing on the state’s rich academic community. Says Zaouk, “we have chemists, we have medical doctors, engineers, statisticians.”

Researchers have shrunk the equipment from large boxes to something that can fit unobtrusively into a car. Most important is improved reliability, as a false result risks inconveniencing someone stranded somewhere with a car that won’t start. “We felt . . . that we could not in any way hassle a sober driver. There would be zero tolerance for any inconvenience,” says Strassburger. Something that began as an “audacious concept” could be commercially available in five years.

The impaired-detection technology may be straightforward—but how people can, will, and should use it in the real world is not. One question is how to allow the technology to interact with AV capabilities. For example, should a semiautonomous car (in which a driver would have to take over only in certain circumstances) transport an obliterated “driver” if the car does not expect such circumstances to arise along the journey—for example, along a road that the car has traveled many times before?

Another question addresses who is in charge of driving decisions: the technology, drivers, or regulators? For instance, should alcohol-detection technology allow an inebriated person to override the system? In a society that claims to have zero tolerance for any drunk driving, this seems a bizarre point, but there are circumstances in which a generally responsible driver might prefer an override function. Does the public-health benefit of keeping drunks off the road outweigh an individual’s imperative, in any condition, to flee, say, a would-be rapist?

Answering this question raises others. If a driver knowingly uses an override function, does he or she incur more culpability in a crash, for knowingly—and not just possibly—driving drunk? Does the car or device manufacturer incur any liability if an innocent person in another car or on the street is injured or killed?

A final question arises, and it, too, will apply to more advanced AV technology: Should drunk-driving detection and disabling be optional or mandatory? The technology’s champions are presenting it as optional, noting that three potential markets for AV cars are parents with teen or twentysomething children of driving age, heavy drinkers who are concerned about the possibility of drinking and driving, and people who may eventually be able to save money on their insurance by installing the technology. (Another, not-quite-optional market: drivers with past drunk-driving convictions who might have to install the technology as part of a court order.)

Yet the history of safety-critical features is that they eventually become mandatory. After all, seat belts and air bags were once optional. The same people who, as children, rode lying down in their parents’ station wagons would never dream of leaving the driveway before ensuring that their kids are belted. In two decades, it may seem reckless to leave a party three hours after having your last drink without knowing for a fact that you are sober.

These are cultural, political, and regulatory decisions, not tech ones. How much personal freedom are Americans willing to give up for safety, not just to benefit themselves, but to help other people on the road?

Nicole Gelinas is a City Journal contributing editor, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, and the author of After the Fall: Saving Capitalism from Wall Street—and Washington.

Read more: https://www.city-journal.org/autonomous-vehicles-vs-dui-16047.html

AV vs. DUI: Autonomous vehicles offer new promise for combating drunk driving, but they also raise new questions

The Driven To Protect Initiative, a partnership between the Virginia DMV and the DADSS Program, exhibited at the 2018 Annual International Conference of the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA). This event brings together administrators of motor vehicle and law enforcement agencies throughout North America – along with industry and federal partners – to share challenges and best practices in traffic safety, secure credentialing, and customer service.

The Driven to Protect exhibit showcased the Virginia DMV’s leadership in advancing this life-saving technology through in-vehicle, on-road test trials and by giving the public an early look at the technology at events around the state. It also gave other state officials an opportunity to learn more about the DADSS program and the work that has gone into developing and testing this first-of-its kind technology.

AAMVA participants were the first to experience a new proprietary system that shows just how advanced the passive sensors are becoming. By sitting in the driver’s seat and by simply giving a voice command, a “driver” is able to provide enough breath for the system to “analyze” the sample, verify the individual is under the .08 limit, and actually start the vehicle with no other actions being required.

Driven To Protect highlights the leadership of the Virginia DMV

The following statement is attributable to Robert Strassburger, President & CEO of ACTS regarding the acquisition of Senseair AB by Asahi Kasei Microdevices (AKM):

We at the DADSS Program are thrilled with the merger of these two innovative companies and offer our hearty congratulations. Senseair’s world–leading research to develop alcohol detection technologies is the foundation of the breath-based DADSS system currently being developed by the Program. We are excited by the work AKM is doing to develop invisible optics systems (such as IR and UV) to detect gas concentrations through small, highly sensitive, high-quality elements, and their reputation as a highly respected supplier in the automotive industry enhances and strengthens our ability to deploy DADSS. Together, these two companies are making passive in–vehicle driver alcohol detection a reality.

This joining of forces exemplifies the spirit of collaboration that the DADSS Program was founded upon, with strategic partners bringing expertise in their fields to make the world a safer place. We are moved that our important work with our newly consolidated partner leads to an ever–safer future without drunk driving.

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News & Updates

The Launch of the Driven To Protect Public-Private Partnership

Governor Northam Launches First Real-World Testing of Innovative, In-Car Alcohol Detection Technology to Save Lives

AV vs. DUI: Autonomous vehicles offer new promise for combating drunk driving, but they also raise new questions

Driven To Protect highlights the leadership of the Virginia DMV

Statement by Driver Alcohol Detection System for Safety (DADSS) Regarding the Acquisition of Senseair AB by Asahi Kasei Microdevices (AKM)