Mandatory driver impairment sensors clear a funding hurdle, but are they ready?

Federal law mandating alcohol detection in vehicles faces delays despite surviving defunding attempt

A federal mandate requiring all new vehicles to be equipped with impairment-detection technology has survived a recent Congressional challenge but remains in regulatory limbo, frustrating advocates who see the technology as crucial to preventing thousands of alcohol-related traffic deaths each year.

The Honoring Abbas Family Legacy to Terminate Drunk Driving Act, often called the Halt Act, was included in the $1 trillion infrastructure package signed into law by President Joe Biden in 2021. The legislation envisioned that as early as this year, automakers would begin installing systems that can “passively” detect driver impairment and prevent vehicles from operating when necessary.

For Rana Abbas Taylor, the law’s passage was deeply personal. In January 2019, her sister, brother-in-law, nephew and two nieces were killed when a driver with a blood-alcohol level nearly four times the legal limit crashed into their car near Lexington, Kentucky, as the Michigan family returned from a Florida vacation.

“The way we measure time is not by days or months or years. It’s by number of lives lost,” Abbas Taylor told The Associated Press. “When we hear manufacturers say, ‘We need more time,’ or ‘The tech is not ready,’ all we hear is, ‘More people need to die before we’re willing to fix this.'”

The technology could take various forms, including air sampling systems that detect alcohol in the vehicle’s cabin, fingertip sensors that measure blood-alcohol levels, or cameras that identify impairment through changes in eye or head movements. Mothers Against Drunk Driving has called the legislation the most significant advancement in its 45-year history.

Yet implementation has stalled amid regulatory delays. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), tasked with establishing the rules, has not provided a clear timeline, telling the AP it is still “assessing developing technologies for potential deployment” and will report to Congress soon. Even supporters anticipate NHTSA will delay implementation until at least 2027, after which automakers would have an additional two to three years to comply.

Last month, a Republican-led effort to strip funding for the Halt Act was defeated in the House of Representatives by a 268-164 vote, though another bill seeking to repeal the law entirely awaits committee consideration.

Much of the opposition centers on mischaracterizations of the technology as a government-controlled “kill switch.” Florida Governor Ron DeSantis amplified this narrative on social media, comparing the mandate to George Orwell’s dystopian novel “1984.”

The alcohol industry has pushed back against such claims. Chris Swonger, president and CEO of the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, emphasized that the law specifically requires the technology to be passive, similar to existing safety features like seat belts and airbags.

“There is no switch, there’s no government control, there is no sharing of data,” Swonger said. “That’s just an unfortunate scare tactic.”

However, Representative Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican who authored the defunding effort, argued that even passive systems could incorrectly determine impairment, potentially stranding drivers in emergency situations. The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, representing U.S. automakers, echoed these concerns in its communications with regulators, suggesting that even a small rate of false positives could affect thousands of unimpaired drivers daily.

Despite these challenges, momentum for implementation is building in other quarters. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety recently announced it would include impairment detection and related technologies aimed at reducing risky driving behaviors in its criteria for top safety awards.

Many states already require breath-activated ignition interlock systems for convicted DUI offenders. The technology ultimately adopted under the Halt Act would expand beyond alcohol to detect other forms of impairment.

“We’re still sort of pushing back against this narrative that the technology doesn’t exist,” said Stephanie Manning, chief government affairs officer at MADD. “We’ve seen many different types of technology that can solve drunk driving. We just haven’t seen it deployed and implemented the way that we would like.”

To accelerate development, legislation advancing in Congress would offer a $45 million prize to the first entity to produce and deploy consumer-ready technology. For Abbas Taylor, such efforts provide hope in her continued advocacy.

“When you’ve lost everything, there is nothing that will stop you from fighting for what is right,” she said. “But we see the writing on the wall, and we know it’s only a matter of time before this happens.”

With more than 10,000 alcohol-related traffic deaths occurring annually on U.S. roads, supporters maintain that implementing this technology could represent one of the most significant advances in vehicle safety in decades, potentially saving thousands of lives each year.