concept car to stop drunks/sleepers at the wheel

[WaveAction]

found this article on cp24 and thought it was interesting..just wanna hear what you guys think of it..if it's a good idea..or a bad idea..or just overall impression on itNew Concept Car May Stop Drunk Or Drowsy DriversFriday August 3, 2007CityNews.ca StaffAfter a string of suspected impaired driving incidents and a long weekend where the OPP will be out in full force on the roads watching for people motoring in an alcoholic fog, comes a new idea that could end the practice of drinking and driving once and for all. You've likely heard about special breath checking devices that can be built into automobiles and prevent them from starting if the would-be motorist has had too much to drink. They're a good safety tool but they're not foolproof and can potentially be defeated by simply having someone else take the test for you. But now a new technology being developed by automobile giant Nissan could defeat those who would defeat the safeguard. The company has built a concept car that features cameras and sensors that measure the odour, sweat and alertness of the person behind the wheel. A camera scans the driver's eyes and if it appears the would-be wheelman's attention is drifting off, alarm bells begin ringing inside the vehicle and a voice message sounds telling the person to pull over immediately. Another monitor keeps track of whether a car is travelling in its lane properly or veering off dangerously into traffic. The company admits its idea is still in the development stage, but the creators believe it will not only help stop impaired drivers but also those who become drowsy behind the wheel. And it won't be easily ignored. "We've placed odour detectors and a sweat sensor on the gear shift, but for example if the gear-shift sensor was bypassed by a passenger using it instead of the driver, the facial recognition system would be used," explains spokesman Kazuhiro Doi.There's no word on when the system might actually hit the road and there are some bugs to be worked out - at present the technology doesn't seem to be able to tell if a driver has had many drinks or just one beer. Photo credit: Mark Renders/Getty Images News

[VforVIBE]

Sounds like a good idea to me, as long as they get all the kinks worked out, I think it would be a useful tool.

[Mavrik]

Slowly but surely we give over our common sense to technology. Its a good idea... but people should know better by now...

[prathman]

Their ideas about defeating the previously proposed breathalyzer and number-entry systems by having a passenger fool them seem a bit far-fetched to me. How many drunk drivers have a sober passenger along who would be willing to fool the systems? I'd expect most sober people would want to avoid riding with an impaired driver. And frankly, I'd be surprised if the system proposed in the article isn't also fairly easy to defeat by locating the sensors and substituting dummy units that always supply valid outputs to the control box. For that matter it's not even clear how the system would respond if the driver wears reflective sunglasses that hide his eye movements and wears gloves to operate the gear shift and steering wheel.