Nissan Turns to Technology to Stop Drunk Driving 287
StonyandCher writes with a ComputerWorld story about new efforts by Nissan to reduce the danger of intoxicated drinkers through technology. A trio of new features installed in a prototype vehicle demonstrated this past week are designed to minimize the damage a drunk behind the wheel can cause. "The first [system] attempts to directly detect alcohol in the driver's sweat and gear shift lever. A second system in the car uses a camera mounted in front of the driver to monitor eye movement. If the driver is drowsy it triggers the seat belt to tighten and this movement will hopefully snap the driver out of their drowsiness or prompt them to take a rest. A third system monitors the path of the vehicle to ensure it's traveling in a straight line and not weaving about the road, as is common with a drunken driver."
To Prank Your Friends with this System... (Score:1, Insightful)
Mandatory? (Score:2, Insightful)
Probably a bad idea. (Score:4, Insightful)
Probably a bad idea. It will encourage drivers to drive drunk. Experience with ABS systems on cars indicates that it encourages drivers to brake more aggressively. This seems more of the same.
Drowsy driver detection systems have been around for a while, mostly on large trucks.
We're in an annoying period where vehicle control systems can help a bit, but aren't yet good enough to reliably drive cars automatically. That's getting close, though. A few more rounds of the DARPA Grand Challenge, in tougher situations, and we'll be there.
Isn't Hand Sanitizer... (Score:2, Insightful)
The other two options sound more effective to me.
Yes and no (Score:5, Insightful)
Maybe I should just get into restoring cars that were made before the integration of microprocessors
This looks like a legal nightmare to me.... (Score:5, Insightful)
In addition, as the auto manufacturers start trying to determine if the driver is drunk or not, this might put them at a legal risk for any false positives or negatives. IANAL, but I'm assuming that the manufacturers of those breath analysis devices that the court forces convicted drunks to put on their cars are somehow indemnified or otherwise held blameless should the user find some way to defeat them. Because this is something ordered by the court, they may be exempt from legal liability. I'm not convinced that any car manufacturer would be so lucky if they start putting them on "production" vehicles. There are plenty of hungry lawyers ready to start some type of class-action suit on behalf of injured third parties. To this end, I say keep up the good work lawyers, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
Just another case of "more nanny state, less personal responsibility."
Drowsy Driving (Score:5, Insightful)
The other day, I was traveling down I-90 in Mass and I was pretty tired. At point point I think I closed my eyes for around 5-10 seconds, and snapped out of it and was half-way into the next lane. I stopped, got out and stretched, and finished my drive with the windows down (which did a good job of keeping me awake). Ok, sure, I *shouldn't have been driving in the first place*, but if the automatic system would have snapped me out of it when it saw me going into the next lane, or saw my eyes closed, that would have been a big help.
Now they just need to add a detector... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Mandatory? (Score:5, Insightful)
That's like, premeditated fucktardery...
Re:Yes and no (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Probably a bad idea. (Score:5, Insightful)
As a volunteer ambulance driver I've performed that service for many people.
Sadly, not all of them were the ones who were taking the risk of driving drunk or fatigued. They just got in the way of someone who'd made that choice.
Wake Me Up When Its Cheap (Score:5, Insightful)
On the other hand, the sleep detection system would be a godsend. If the price was right, I would happily get one of those things installed. I don't want it turning off my car in the middle of the highway, but tightening my seatbelt, beeping, or in some way warning me that I look like I am nodding off would be wonderful. Obviously, you would want a way to turn off the damn thing so that it doesn't confuse bobbing your head along to music with falling asleep, but so long as you can turn the thing off and it is relatively cheap, I think lots of people would go for it and get it installed voluntarily.
Re:What About Bartenders or Waiters? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Probably a bad idea. (Score:4, Insightful)
One beer... I'm pretty sure I'm sober enough to drive.
Two plus... I'm not sure, better not chance it.
Now
One beer... It lets me start, I'm sober.
Five beers... It won't let me start. Yay, I can rely on this.
Three beers... Eh, I'll give it a shot. Hey, what do you know? I guess I'm more sober than I thought. Let's drive!
Whilst it's true that it's not exactly the same concept as ABS which compensates without discouraging, it does have a huge drawback in terms of giving people the sense that they can pass responsibility off on to a machine to determine if they're too drunk rather than erring on the side of caution.
Of course, the flip side is that many people don't err on the side of caution. It was an eye opener for me, moving from a country where drink driving was a major no-no to one where just about every person I meet seems to have a story about how they got pulled over after having "only had a few" and how unfair they felt it was. For people who err on the side of excess, this system will rein them in - great. For people who err on the side of caution however - and I desperately want to believe there are more people like this - it plays in to all kinds of behavioral psychology weaknesses to encourage them to stop playing it so safe. If that is indeed the larger group, it probably does make things worse overall.
Re:Mandatory? (Score:3, Insightful)
Of course, I am not in the least familiar with your systems, but is just a thought.
Re:hmmm (Score:2, Insightful)
About 10 years ago, I was in a 100+ MPH head on collision with a drunk driver who was being pursued by the local police. I was driving a Pontiac Fiero, which has about the same number of safety features that your future kit car is likely to have, and the impact basically folded the entire car in on itself. Fortunately the only place inside the cabin that wasn't totally compressed was the driver's footwell and seat, but I still had to be cut out of the car, and had the engine been in the front instead of the rear, I wouldn't be here to write this. Since then, safety features in the cars that I buy is always a major priority; sure they add weight, but my current car has 1 HP per 9 LBS of weight and a full array of air-bags, crumple zones, ESP, all wheel drive, ABS, you name it, and it's not a slouch.
I find it amusing that people don't want these features because it adds weight, and think they are so proficient a driver that that shaving those potentially life-saving pounds will actually result in a perceptable difference to the car's performance. Maybe there are people out their for whom weight savings are critical, but these are the guys buying BMW M3 CSLs and ripping out the back seats in order to get optimal track performance, not becuase it will get them to work 2 seconds faster. Your car's performance will never be a significant factor in the time that it takes to get travel from A-B on most American roads, but your car's safety features may one day save your life.
Re:Drowsy Driving (Score:3, Insightful)
If one is looking for a technical solution a better one might be self-piloted cars, personal rapid transit, or some other system that takes human drivers out of the loop. Such a system would solve a lot of other problems as well (road congestion, parking, cheap transit for those who can't afford cars, almost all car accidents (assuming complete enforcement of maintenance - something achievable when the cars are computer-controlled), etc).
Simply throwing the book at anybody caught doing something that 80% of the population does is going to be about as effective as passing a death-penalty speeding law.
Re:Probably a bad idea. (Score:1, Insightful)
So, I don't care how many people you've pulled out of cars, Mr Ambulance Driver. It's a risk I'm willing to take, and it's far better than the alternatives.
I'm with the Hyperbole Police (Score:4, Insightful)
Aside from issues with your use of hyperbole (which I hope it is), I would like to defend the parent and perhaps shed some light on the actions and decisions of those fully participating in society.
Sometimes when you're a grown-up, you perform certain actions that have an inherent risk. In fact, most of the actions you perform have some level of inherent risk, e.g. eating at a sit-down restaurant can lead to food poisoning, eating at McDonald's can lead to shame and indigestion, et al. Part of being a grown-up though is making responsible risk/benefit analysis about these decisions. Usually this means that you don't have to even consider the possibility (although real) of food poisoning from your favorite restaurant, unless there has been a spate of recent incidences that you are aware of.
When it comes to driving, we have to assess inherent risks due to a variety of factors including but not limited to:
1) The mechanical condition of our car, i.e. how certain our we that are brakes are good and will respond as we expect when we need them to, and also, the condition of our tires and are we going to be driving in conditions where a tire blowout would threaten our life, or the lives of others around us, etc.
2) The weather conditions, i.e. how less competent of a driver are we in heavy rain, or when the roads are icy, or when visibility is very low (fog)
3) Our physical/mental conditon, i.e. are we incredibly angry about something (we usually make poorer judgments when we are), or are we tired? and how tired are we (could be just a little bodily tired from a good physical workout, or could be that we're drowsy due to lack of sleep), etc.
In combination with all these inherent risks we weigh the benefits of the drive:
Are we returning home from a long absence to those who are worried about, and are deeply missing us? Or perhaps we are just going out for a drive because we have nothing better to do(people who don't know about /. still do this, I've heard). Or, as an extreme example, we're rushing a loved one to the hospital, where every minute counts towards saving their life
In the end, almost every mature adult consciously, or unconsciously, makes this risk/benefit assessment before driving, and very few let their decision to drive be governed absolutely by any criteria about the circumstances of themselves their vehicle, or their environment.Re:Accurate... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Drowsy Driving (Score:3, Insightful)
Why is this kind of lapse so much more socially acceptable than driving while intoxicated? Come on people, spell it out for me.
Most people I know would admit to driving while tired/falling asleep. And yet nobody would admit to driving drunk, even if they've done it.