Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren vog Obam. Here in the United States alone,
Speaker 1: thirty people die every day in drunk driving related crashes.
Speaker 1: That equates to one person every forty eight minutes. But
Speaker 1: simple technology to prevent and even possibly end drunk driving exists,
Speaker 1: So why aren't carmakers required to implement it? New legislation
Speaker 1: in the United States aims to do just that, to
Speaker 1: require all new cars be equipped with alcohol detection systems
Speaker 1: by four The Reduced Impaired Driving for Everyone Act of
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen, known as the RIDE Act, was introduced to
Speaker 1: Congress from both sides of the aisle by Senators Tom
Speaker 1: you do All of New Mexico and Rick Scott of Florida,
Speaker 1: who co sponsored the Senate bill, and Representative Debbie Dingle
Speaker 1: of Michigan in the House. Democrats and Republicans working together,
Speaker 1: the lawmakers believe the law could save seven thousand lives
Speaker 1: per year. We spoke by email with net Adrian's Senator
Speaker 1: Utall's communications director. He said, you all saw the success
Speaker 1: that Ignition interlocked technology had in reducing the number of
Speaker 1: alcohol related driving fatalities in New Mexico and sees alcohol
Speaker 1: detection technology as a big part of the solution in
Speaker 1: preventing drunk drivers from getting behind the wheel. The Ride
Speaker 1: Act doesn't just call for automakers to implement alcohol detection
Speaker 1: technology on their own. The bill also provides funding for
Speaker 1: research and development of advanced alcohol detection software. The legislation
Speaker 1: will establish a pilot program of fleet vehicles equipped with
Speaker 1: the software, including those from federal, state, and private partners.
Speaker 1: That means the technology will be tested on vehicles before
Speaker 1: being mandated for consumers. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration,
Speaker 1: or n h t s A, is also partnering with
Speaker 1: automobile manufacturers to help develop alcohol detection systems that can
Speaker 1: be installed in vehicles. The n h t s A
Speaker 1: will work with the private Automotive Coalition for Traffic Safety,
Speaker 1: as well as directly with vehicle manufacturers, suppliers, and other
Speaker 1: stood parties, including institutions of higher education with expertise and
Speaker 1: automotive engineering, to develop the technology. Once the pilot program
Speaker 1: is underway, results will initially be evaluated in the first
Speaker 1: twelve months and again every eight days. The target for
Speaker 1: implementing the federally mandated technology and all new vehicles will
Speaker 1: be no more than two years after the law is enacted.
Speaker 1: As for how it will actually work, we can get
Speaker 1: some insight from current technology, though that doesn't necessarily reflect
Speaker 1: the future. An ignition interlock device or I i D
Speaker 1: is essentially a breathalyzer connected to a car's ignition system.
Speaker 1: Once it's installed, the car won't start until someone breathes
Speaker 1: into the I i D with an alcohol free breath.
Speaker 1: Drivers also can't disconnect the devices without damaging the vehicle.
Speaker 1: It's possible for a driver to trick these devices by
Speaker 1: having someone else provide the breath sample, but the devices
Speaker 1: also demand rolling samples at regular intervals while the vehicle
Speaker 1: is in motion, making it difficult for anyone other than
Speaker 1: the driver to comply, and the statistics show that they work.
Speaker 1: In May of twenty nineteen, Mothers Against a Drunk Driving
Speaker 1: announced that in car breathalyzers stopped drivers who were drunk
Speaker 1: from starting their cars more than three million times since
Speaker 1: two thousand six, that's when MAD began pushing for ignition
Speaker 1: interlocks for every drunk driver. MAD collected its data from
Speaker 1: eleven ignition interlock manufacturers. The data found that I I
Speaker 1: d s stopped almost three forty eight thousand attempts by
Speaker 1: drivers with alcohol in their system in twenty eighteen alone.
Speaker 1: Life Saver, a provider of interlock devices and services, says
Speaker 1: on its website that false positives are possible, though triggered
Speaker 1: by anything from mouthwash to fruit juice to pizza dough.
Speaker 1: In that case, a series of lockout periods are triggered
Speaker 1: before the driver can take another test, anywhere from five
Speaker 1: minutes on up, depending on the laws of the state.
Speaker 1: If a rolling sample triggers a failure, the vehicle must
Speaker 1: be stopped as soon as possible to pull over safely,
Speaker 1: and a failure on a subsequent test after a lockout
Speaker 1: period puts the vehicle in a service mode, where it
Speaker 1: must be taken to a service center to be reset.
Speaker 1: It's unclear whether the laws for federally mandated built in
Speaker 1: devices would use similar procedures. The Ride Act bill does
Speaker 1: state that the technology will automatically use the blood alcohol
Speaker 1: content cut off for the jurisdiction where the vehicle is
Speaker 1: being operated. However, the bill does not specify whether the
Speaker 1: development team is working with existing technology or what form
Speaker 1: the implementation will take. Also, who would pay for all
Speaker 1: of this? Generally, when drivers are required to install an
Speaker 1: aftermarket I I D after a d U I. They
Speaker 1: pay the costs for installation, monthly fees for the court
Speaker 1: mandated monitoring period, and the removal fee at the end
Speaker 1: of their sentence. These costs can easily add up to
Speaker 1: thousands of dollars, which is not necessarily representative of the
Speaker 1: cost of the I I D itself. Since there are
Speaker 1: different suppliers of these I I D s in different areas,
Speaker 1: prices can vary, and Furthermore, the monthly fee also includes
Speaker 1: a monitoring service that records the results of each test
Speaker 1: to report back to the court if necessary. A Lifesaver
Speaker 1: says their pricing is bound by the laws of the
Speaker 1: states in which they provide their services. It's unclear how
Speaker 1: or if the cost of these devices would be passed
Speaker 1: on to consumers if they become mandated as part of
Speaker 1: car equipment, though the text of udall in Scott's proposal
Speaker 1: specifies that federal funding will help pay for the development costs.
Speaker 1: The federal government has already dedicated about fifty million dollars
Speaker 1: to the project. Adrian said some in the industry raised
Speaker 1: cost as an objection to other landmark safety requirements like seatbelts, airbags,
Speaker 1: and backup cameras. But Senator Udall believes that years of
Speaker 1: federally funded research have prepared this technology to be integrated
Speaker 1: into mass commercialization in the coming years. While the cost
Speaker 1: projections are still developing, Senator Udall believes that widespread development
Speaker 1: in new cars can be done in an affordable way.
Speaker 1: For now, the proposed legislation is focused on providing resources
Speaker 1: for development, with details on implementation to follow Adrian's explained
Speaker 1: at the moment. The Driver Alcohol Detection System for Safety Program,
Speaker 1: which is partially funded by the n h T s A,
Speaker 1: has developed technology that can detect alcohol and the driver's
Speaker 1: breath that they are testing in Virginia and Maryland. Engineers
Speaker 1: are also developing devices to detect the blood alcohol level
Speaker 1: of the driver using touch sensors. Volvo has announced that
Speaker 1: it will be installing cameras in cars to detect if
Speaker 1: a driver is drunk or distracted, and Senator you'd All
Speaker 1: hopes that the spirit of this completely voluntary initiative demonstrated
Speaker 1: by Volvo will set the standard for automakers selling cars
Speaker 1: in the United States. Today's episode was written by Trees
Speaker 1: three Wit and produced by Tyler Playing brain Stuff is
Speaker 1: production of I Heart Radios How Stuff Works. For more
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