Alcohol sensor in your 2009 Toyota?

TOKYO (AP) — Toyota 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.

Hat tip to reader dawson!

Comments

[Ayman]

sounds like a great idea.......

[BS Steve]

I know I wont be purchasing a Toyota now!!!!

More thought police at work.....I bet most will just have the passenger blow for them lol....Geniuses I am telling ya...They think of everythiing....

[G]

A great idea?

I hope you are kidding, Ayman.

[Nick]

I don't drink, but Toyota now joins GM on my list of cars I will never buy again. First Black Boxes and cameras, then storm trooper road blocks, and pulling someone over without cause. I'm so sick of insurance companies and prohibitionists I'll have no room for sympathy when people like "Angry" figures out who their real enemies are.

[onetime]

sweat sensors on the steering wheels huh. Boy I bet a nice leather cover won't stop that from working. Ahem.

[onetime]

Then again, Toyota may be nice enough to sell you an approved cover for $499.99.

[Vibiana]

Sounds like a lousy idea. It seems there are a million ways this thing could be circumvented -- or malfunction.

[bad cop no doughnut]

Great post Mr Reeves

"Concerns over drunken driving have surged in Japan following a series of alcohol-related accidents last year."

Has anyone ever driven behind an Asian in this country? Trust me, it's not the alcohol. Notice the play on words in the article..."drunk driving does not = alcohol related fatality". Japanese are starting to be brainwashed by the MADDwashed media in this and their own country. What next, will it be illegal to drive with gloves on to circumvent the violation of privacy in my own personal property?

"The system could also kick in if the sensors detect abnormal steering,..... "

Finally, a car that stops the cell phone using inattentive soccer mom and other inattentive sober drivers that are 99% more likely to kill someone in an accident when compared to the truly drunk driver (>.15). Way to go Toyota. I'll get working on a patent for the by pass for the system. Social drinkers have rights you know. I wonder how MADD has manipulated the stats in Japan to get them to believe it's a bigger problem then inattentive driving? Hmmmm......

[Nick]

BCND,
MADD is funded almost entirely by All State Insurance Canada now. If you follow the money you will find the IIHS knee deep in this project.

[bad cop no doughnut]

Nick,

Why do I care who funds the lies of NHTSA/MADD?

[Nick]

Because BCND,
Ending the exemption from Anti Trust legislation for the insurance industy, ending their ability to absorb tax exempt non profits and limiting their ability to lobby and bribe state and federal agencies is the only way to stop their social engineering for profit scam.
It is imperitive for people to know where this nonsense is actually coming from and what it's real purpose is.
The reason you need to know, is the same reason they try and keep it unknown. It's the only way they can manipulate the laws to their will, for their own purposes.

[Tom K]

MADD is just one more organization that pretends to be a "grass roots" effort to dispose of human rights. Take a hard look around. Every major activist organization these days is serving the government with laws that they claim that the people want, and those laws always curtail our right to privacy, our right to own property, our freedom of association, and our right to control what is done to our bodies, among other rights. In short, they are after our civil rights and they pretend that it's about safety.

[Dave]

More BS

[Joel]

I wont be bying any toyotas, that sucks, Insurance companies are behind this, theire trying to save money.just like when they were trying to deny my claim, and not get me a rental when they were responsable for my accident, allstate, state farm and fred loya suck

[Jeanne Pruett]

This is the dumbest thing I've ever seen an automaker do. In the first place who's going to buy this vehicle?

Joe Blow who already doesn't drink and drive? What kind of logic goes into that thought process? Uh, gee, I don't drink and drive, but I guess I better get me one of these new Toyotas just to make sure.

Or would it be Joe Blow who's an alcoholic and drives after drinking all the time and doesn't give a shit? Somehow I doubt he'll buy it.

How about Joe Blow the social drinker who has one or two drinks after work or with dinner. Watch as sales plummet when people start getting stranded all over the highways. Yeah, I can see buying something like that.

Since I work for one of the big three automakers, I'm just going to sit back and watch in glee while the Japanese shoot themselves in the foot with this one. I knew something had to happen to boost the American auto market.

[Stuart]

Hey, Did'nt a company here in america design
this steering wheel named ( The D.U.I.E Project) Invented by Ellwood Ivey sound like
patent infrngement to me. Do your D.D.

[bad cop no doughnut]

Nick,

Please support your position that Allstate and other insurance companies are "absorbing" non-profits like MADD. I know insurance companies donate to political campaigns to get favorable rates in certain states. It's been going on since the 80's.

I would be interested in reading those articles that show the connection with MADD and insurance companies in the United States. Can you quantify the contributions or dollars being paid to absorb non-profits?

FYI…My understanding is that organizations like PIRE are fleecing taxpayers via government contributions to spew the MADD rhetoric. Look them up. The org is very pro-prohibition.

[E. Ivey]

Hello Guys: The sensitized steering wheel (US version) only responds by alerting the driver if their driving above the legal limit (.08). If the driver refuse to stop driving above the legal limit the system will then blow the horn and flash the lights alerting pedestrian and motorist, or perhaps the police. It's a completely passive system unless the driver insists on breaking the law. By the way it was not invented by the Japanese, but by The DUIE Project a US R&D firm that first demonstrated the System way back in 1994 for CNN and WTOC News in Savannah Georgia of all places!

I hope this bit of information sober you up.
EGI

[Doc]

Bring it on! Currently drunk driving costs America millions of dollars each year. This is money spent in court fee's and on lawyers. If the car companies put this technology on cars drunk driving will be virtually eliminated or greatly reduced. The only ones who should be crying here are lawyers and drunks - not citizens who don't drink and drive over the limit. I know, I drank and drove UNDER the limit but am still fighting a dui because I didn't know the law. I SHOULD HAVE BLOWN but I didn't. This system would have saved my butt!