The United States Department of Transportation recently announced a five-year extension to the cooperative agreement with the Automotive Coalition for Traffic Safety. The partnership is to research and help eliminate the possibility of drunk driving in the United States. The Automotive Coalition for Traffic Safety is comprised of 15 automakers. The companies are all researching advanced alcohol detection technology that could possibly prevent all vehicles in the future from being driven by drunk drivers.

At present, the only technology of this nature is an ignition interlock device. While these are placed on many vehicles when a DUI offender has been convicted, they are not required on all cars. This means that all first-time offenders are able to hop in their car and drive without even worrying about the car not starting. In some states, ignition interlock devices aren't even used. Other states will only mandate them for multiple-DUI offenders. This technology would be advanced enough to detect a person's BAC without requiring them to blow into the ignition interlock device.

Because the technology would not present an inconvenience to all drivers, it could be installed in every single car, preventing individuals from ever driving drunk. This would eliminate thousands of accidents on U.S. roadways every single year. The technology has not yet been invented, and the Department of Transportation and the Automotive Coalition for Traffic Safety are doing all that they can to explore avenues and determine the way to make this concept a reality.

The Transportation Secretary Anthony Fox told the NHTSA that drink driving is a deadly crime that tears families apart and often destroys lives. The DOT says that they will work closely with all federal, state, and local safety partners to try to come to a solution using new technologies in the ever-advancing automotive industry.

The NHTDSA says that they are working to develop what is specifically known as a Driver Alcohol Detection System for Safety or DADSS. The partners want to emphasize that the system must be noninvasive and must be accurate and reliable. Presumably, the system will be able to detect when a driver is above the legal alcohol limit of 0.08%. The automatic system would be enabled every single time that the car is turned on.

If the DADSS is set to prevent the car from moving when the driver has a BAC of over 0.08%, it would be a mechanism that could hold most drivers accountable. Any individuals under 21 could still be arrested for driving with even a 0.01% BAC level as the zero-tolerance law would still be in place. As well, commercial drivers are not permitted to drive with more than a 0.04% BAC. This means that they also may be arrested even if they are capable of driving their vehicle because they haven't exceeded the civilian driver limit.

The NHTSA administrator is optimistic about this new project, and says that in this age of innovation, the technology may be the breakthrough needed to prevent drunk drivers from getting behind the wheel. The DADSS program has supposedly shown significant promise already, and the NHTSA sees the program's potential. The program was authorized under The Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act. The NHTSA and the ACTS have together contributed about $6,539.400 to advance long-term research into this program.

For the next five years, the organizations plan to continue researching DADSS and determining whether or not the technology is ready for commercialization. Automakers that choose to implement the technology will then be able to do so. According to the NHTSA website a pilot vehicle should be out by 2015 for testing and will have a touch-based and breath-based technology .