[jdmj0]

Source: http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/01/02/ap3293539.html

Toyota Motor Corp. is developing a fail-safe system for cars that detects drunken drivers and automatically shuts the vehicle down if sensors pick up signs of excessive alcohol consumption, a news report said Wednesday.

Cars fitted with the detection system will not start if sweat sensors in the driving wheel detect high levels of alcohol in the driver's bloodstream, according to a report carried by the mass-circulation daily, Asahi Shimbun.

The system could also kick in if the sensors detect abnormal steering, or if a special camera shows that the driver's pupils are not in focus. The car is then slowed to a halt, the report said.

The world's No. 2 automaker hopes to fit cars with the system by the end of 2009, according to the report. Calls to Toyota (nyse: TM - news - people )'s headquarters in Nagoya rang unanswered on Wednesday, a public holiday.

I've always say to my friends that they should seriously just put a breathalyzer mechanical device in every car before starting it up. +1 for the folks @Toyota.

[YSK]

oh yeah i heard about that. Great idea. Hopefully it gets implemented sooner.

[wangta]

sounds like a good idea but what if like the drunk driver is zig zagging across a highway and the system detects abnormal steering so then it shuts the vehicle down and slows it to a halt, then they end up parked across two lanes on the highway or sumthing.

[jphase]

sounds like an awesome idea.. but.. wouldn't it raise the price of cars to a point where people will just buy used cars instead?

[jdmj0]

Well true about the zig-zagging and halting in the middle of traffic. Rather than having the drunk driver weaving in and out of traffic @high speeds endangering lives throughout his drunken state, the car will slowly come to a stop and hopefully other drivers AREN'T drunk and obeying the law that they can see the situation and avoid it themselves, while the system is preventing the driver from continuing. Perhaps then the system will automatically alert authorities and so on.

And I say, better sooner than later. Get started ASAP so that by the time we send our kids to school, these systems will be the norm.

And also in the article, Nissan is stepping up to the plate on the breathalyzer. Like I said, my thought is to put the system in and making the driver use it BEFORE even starting the car, prevent the situation from even happening.

[ZiGeNX77]

Hmm... anything to improve the safety of our roads to drunk drivers is a plus in my book.

[iamsars]

well to prevent from stopping in the middle of the road couldn't they make it auto drive off the road? (like side of the road)

[jdmj0]

of course the question is how, but i mean if they can implement cameras to detect eye dialation or whatever, i'm sure a computer can guide the car off the road, i mean we already have self-reversing computers in cars lol