Notice of proposed rulemaking related to drunk driving technology

When the word interlock appears in a document 42 times we notice it (note: many instances are not related to ignition interlock devices but many instances are). The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), Department of Transportation has issued an advance notice of proposed rulemaking.

What does this mean?

This document initiates rulemaking that would gather the information necessary to develop performance requirements and require that new passenger motor vehicles be equipped with advanced drunk and impaired driving prevention technology through a new Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS). In this notice, NHTSA presents its various activities related to preventing drunk and impaired driving and discusses the current state of advanced impaired driving technology. NHTSA also asks many questions to gather the information necessary to develop a notice of proposed rulemaking on advanced drunk and impaired driving technology. Comments should be submitted in one of the ways mentioned in the notice no later than 60 days following the publication in the federal register. 

Executive Summary

This text comes straight from the executive summary of this notice:

Alcohol-impaired driving is a major cause of crashes and fatalities on America’s roadways. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has been actively involved in addressing alcohol-impaired driving since the 1970s. Recent developments in vehicle technology present new opportunities to further reduce drunk and impaired driving crashes and fatalities or eliminate them altogether. Private and public researchers have also made significant progress on technologies that are capable of measuring and quantifying driver state and performance (e.g., hands on the steering wheel, visual gaze direction, lane position). However, harnessing these technologies for drunk and impaired driving detection and prevention remains a significant challenge. NHTSA’s information gathering and research efforts have found that several technologies show promise for detecting various states of impairment, which for the purposes of this notice are alcohol, drowsiness, and distraction. However, technological challenges, such as distinguishing between different impairment states, avoiding false positives, and determining appropriate prevention countermeasures, remain. Due to technology immaturity and a lack of testing protocols, drugged driving is not being considered in this notice. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (Bipartisan Infrastructure Law or BIL) directs NHTSA to issue a final rule establishing a Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) that requires new passenger vehicles to have “advanced drunk and impaired driving prevention technology” by 2024.

Technology is what we know

Our interlock devices use state of the art fuel cell technology. NHTSA seeks comment on a variety of complex issues related to advanced drunk and impaired driving prevention technology. We'll continue to follow this proposed rulemaking, and you can continue to follow our blog for information related to drunk driving and technology available to stop it.