NEWS: New blood alcohol sensors could make cars shut down if they sense drivers are over the legal drinking limit

This piece of news was written for the online version of the Daily Mail in 6th June. It doesn't say who wrote it. It talks about a new system for the car industry that makes it posible to shut down the car when it detects a high level of alcohol in the driver's blood.

The DADSS (Driver Alcohol Detection System for Safety) programme started in 2008 and now the first mock-ups are showing up. The device has been created by the collaboration of the National Highway Safety Administration, for the blood alcohol detectors, and the Automotive Coalition for Traffic Safety.

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The invention is based in two detectors of blood alcohol. The first one is the breath-based system, which measures the levels of alcohol molecules in the driver's breath. The second one is the touch-based system, which makes a near-infrared tissue spectroscopy to detect alcohol molecules in the driver's blood by the transpiration of his or her touch. This mode works with the use of light intensity to detect the alcohol molecules, as alcohol only absorbs certain wavelenghts. These two methods cause the car to shut down if the alcohol levels are at 0.08% (the legal limit) or higher.

Some of the mock-ups were presented in the Congress with representatives at the U.S. Department of Transportation.

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Personally, I think this is a great device for vehicle industry. It is amazing that we can improve safety so much with it. The cause of many vehicle crashes accidents is that one of the drivers was drunk. As a consequence of the introduction of the DADSS to the industry, there will be less accidents. The best thing we can do in this sector of technology is not to improve in faster and fancy vehicles, but to improve in safer vehicles.

Here you have the video of the news!

VOCABULARY

wavelength: the distance, measured in the direction of a wave, between two successive points in the wave that are characterized by the same phase of oscillation.

pinpoint: to locate or describe exactly or precisely.

mock-up: a model, often full-size, for study, testing, or teaching.