NHTSA considering impaired driving tech mandate for new cars

As part of an effort to take drunk and distracted drivers off the road, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is working to develop a proposal that would require impaired driving prevention technology on new passenger vehicles.

NHTSA is scheduled to publish an advance notice of proposed rulemaking on Friday, Jan. 5 aimed at gathering the necessary information to develop performance requirements for the technology. The rulemaking does not apply to commercial motor vehicles.

According to NHTSA, 13,384 people were killed in drunk driving crashes in 2021.

“Alcohol-impaired driving is a major cause of crashes and fatalities on America’s roadways,” the agency wrote in the 105-page notice. “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.”

NHTSA said that several technologies have the potential to detect such impairments as alcohol, drowsiness and distraction. However, the agency also acknowledges that there are several technological challenges, including distinguishing between different impairment states, avoiding false positives and determining appropriate prevention countermeasures. NHTSA’s rulemaking does not tackle drugged driving due to “technology immaturity and a lack of testing protocols.”

This advance notice of proposed rulemaking will help gather information about the state of technology to detect impaired driving and about how to deploy technology safely and effectively, the agency said.

Congress directed NHTSA to initiate the rulemaking as part of the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The law says that NHTSA should issue a new regulation only if it meets the requirements of the National Traffic Motor Vehicle Safety Act, which states that a proposed standard “must be reasonable, practicable and reduce traffic crashes and associated deaths.”

What’s next?

Once the notice is published in the Federal Register, the public will have 60 days to comment in a variety of areas, including privacy and security considerations and consumer acceptance. To comment, go to the regulations.gov website and enter Docket No. NHTSA-2022-0079.

NHTSA then will review the comments and determine whether or not to move forward with a notice of proposed rulemaking. LL