The Problem
- Each year in America, drunk driving claims more than 10,000 lives and costs the U.S. approximately $194 billion.1
- Alcohol-impaired driving fatalities account for more than 1/3 of all motor vehicle traffic fatalities in the United States.2
- In 2013, of the fatalities among children age 14 and younger, 17 percent occurred in alcohol-impaired-driving crashes.3
A New Approach
The Driver Alcohol Detection System for Safety (DADSS) Research Program brings together the Automotive Coalition for Traffic Safety (ACTS), which represents the world’s leading automakers, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) 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.
The Program is researching a first-of-its-kind technology called the Alcohol Detection System that will detect when a driver is intoxicated with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) at or above 0.08% – the legal limit in all 50 states except Utah – and prevent the car from moving. The system will be made available as a safety option in new vehicles, much like automatic braking, lane departure warning and other advanced driver assist vehicle technologies.
Combining the sharpest minds in transportation innovation with the world’s leading experts in non-invasive alcohol sensing, the technology will be fast, accurate, reliable and affordable. And unlike existing alcohol detection technologies, it will be seamlessly integrated into vehicles and will not affect normal driving behavior.