Car Might Prevent Drunk-Driving Accidents

Nissan has just unveiled its concept car that has several preventive features to help reduce drunk driving accidents. This anti drunk-driving technology is currently in a production model of Nissan's Fuga sedan and is designed to detect the driver's state of sobriety and once the car detects that a driver is drunk, activates a series of preventive measures including immobilization of the vehicle.

Nissan's anti drunk-driving technology includes alcohol odor sensors, facial recognition system, and monitoring driving behavior.

Before the introduction of this concept car, Nissan already has some anti drunk-driving technology incorporated on their cars. In June of this year, it already introduced a drunk-driving message alert on its navigation system and just last July, Nissan already began testing a breathalyzer system where the vehicle will be immobilized if the driver's breath indicates alcohol above a specified level.

Nissan's concept car has an alcohol odor sensor integrated into the gear shift knob and can detect the presence of alcohol through perspiration from the driver's palm as the driver starts to drive. The system has a threshold to determine if the alcohol level is above normal and when the alcohol level of the driver goes beyond the threshold, the system immobilizes the car by locking the transmission and a drunk driving voice alert is issued through the car's navigation system. Several alcohol odor detector are also placed in the driver and passenger seats to detect the presence of alcohol in the air inside the car. If alcohol is detected in the air, a voice alert also sounds through the navigation system.

A camera mounted on the instrument panel monitors the driver's face to detect the driver's consciousness through the blinking of the eyes. When the system detects signs of sleepiness, the seatbelt is tightened around the driver to wake him or to catch the drivers attention, additionally, a voice and message alert also sounds.

Another one of the system's anti drunk-driving technology is a system that monitors the behavior of the vehicle, like if the vehicle is veering out of lane. The system also detects if the driver is inattentive or distracted and when alerted of any drunk behavior, the system triggers preventive measures similar to those issued when the driver is sleepy, i.e. message alerts and tightening of the seat-belt.

According to Mother's Against Drunk Driving (MADD) online statistics based on data provided by National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 17,602 people were killed in alcohol related crashes in 2006, contributing to about 41% of total traffic fatalities.

SOURCE:

Nissan, Concept Car To Showcase Anti Drunk-Driving Technology. URL: (http://www.nissan-global.com/EN/NEWS/2007/_STORY/070803-02-e.html)