Nissan's Wages Electronic War on Drunk Driving

Drunk driving, or driving under the influence is one of the most destructive, senseless and selfish acts that a person can ever engage in. However, even the consequences and the law are not enough to stop almost 254,000 drunk driving accidents that occur every year in America. The problem, of course, is that even despite law enforcement, driving checkpoints, and the concern of family and friends, there is simply no way to make sure that those who are under the influence of alcohol do not get behind the wheel. That was, of course, until Nissan decided to take the fight one step further.

Nissan, an automobile company that has always worked for safety and reliability in its cars, has begun development for a new system placed into cars that will prevent any driver from even starting the vehicle if they are over the legal limit of alcohol. This may sound to be more fantasy than reality, but a full, and technologically advanced system is being worked on to make sure that the system does indeed become standard equipment on all cars by the year 2015.

How does Nissan plan to keep drunk drivers from getting behind the wheel? Nissan itself doesn't plan to do it, in fact, their going to let their cars take care of the battle for them. Whenever a driver steps into one of the cars undergoing research from Nissan, a full array of sensors and detection equipment will begin to collect and interpret data on the driver. The company plans to place sensors in the seats and around the car to detect the odor of alcohol on either the driver or passenger, and the seats are also designed to detect an excessive amount of sweat coming off of the driver. If any of these sensors or warning signs are tipped, then the car will refuse to start.

Another feature of the system is to be placed on the car's gearshift, being another sensor that will register sweat and body temperature. Of course, in the event that a driver figures out how to bypass the seat or gearshift sensors, then an in car camera will scan the eyes of the driver to detect excessive pupil dilation or any other factor that may be associated with drunk driving.