Toyota Creating Alcohol Detection System
TOKYO - 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's headquarters in Nagoya rang unanswered on Wednesday, a public holiday.

Nissan Motor Co., another Japanese car manufacturer, has already been experimenting with breathalyzer-like devices that could detect if a driver was drunken. Similar technologies, such as alcohol ignition interlocks, are in use in the U.S. and elsewhere.

Concerns over drunken driving have surged in Japan following a series of alcohol-related accidents last year. In August, a drunken driver collided with another vehicle carrying a family of five, plunging them off a bridge and killing three children.

The incident prompted stepped-up roadside spot checks by police, who also plan to stiffen penalties for drunken driving.

 

Hmm It could possibly be good. What I'd be worried about is when it falsely detects drunk driving. I know I'd be pissed if my car suddenly won't go because IT THINKS I'm drunk.

Abnormal steering? Shoot... what if I want to go Auto-X-ing? Can't get good lap times if your car stops on you. If you thought VSC was bad...

Don't get me wrong, I hope they can get this system up, but it won't be worth squat if doesn't work.

 

i'm sure it will be an option and will not be standard...there are people who do not drink at all and would be quite annoyed at having to pay for a feature they KNOW they will never ever need to use

 

I dont drink, wont bother me

 

Sounds like a very good thing but drunks will probably just not buy cars equipped with this and just buy another brand - it'll work in Japan because everyone either drives a toyota or nissan...

 

May not be good with asthmatic people, or people with respiratory diseases.

Perhaps a small blood sample detecting device is more approprate...

 

I also want to comment on abnormal steering...what if I have to abnormally steer out of the other way of the drunks that I regularly find on the roads down here late at night after my track runs, and those drunks ain't in Toyotas?

 

That sounds dangerous.
A car that just shuts down after detecting alcohol.
What if it detects it while you are on the highway and you can't pull over fast enough?

I like the concept but they need to get these little details down first.

 

I ponder what the risk is of having minty fresh breath in these things?

 

I have a alcohal detector at home. If you gargle your mouth with Scope or Listerine, it will dedect alcohal...

 

I don't think it will detect excessive alcohol with mouthwash to trigger the shut down . . .

 

Great another "Nanny State" device.

 

I'd hate to have to ***** my finger everytime I want to start my car!

And I second the idea that the steering thing is a bad notion.... what about people who just drive aggressively or wanna track a car or do some donuts/drifting in a isloated snowy parking lot?

 

what about our abnormal steering to avoid potholes that all of us with expensive nice rims do? I know its always an obstacle course for me when I hit the road to dodge potholes here in NY

 

umm, gloves?!?

"Toyota designs drunk driving detection system
Drunk driving accounts for about one-third of all fatalities these days, and organizations seem to have run out of ideas to stop people from driving drunk. Well, Toyota is never one to back down from a challenge. The auto company is in the process of designing cars that will detect whether drivers are drunk through sweat in their palms. When drivers place their hands on the wheel and they are beyond the legal limit, the car will automatically shut down. It won’t be available for two years, but Clark loves this idea. We need to put a stop to it and the company claims this is a fail safe system. MADD – Mothers Against Drunk Driving - is also trying out an idea in New Mexico that could be promising, as well. In that state and now others, convicted drunk drivers have to blow into a tube before they can drive a car. Any preventative idea like this is bound to save lives and that is the main objective. "