This country requires all new cars to come with anti-drunk driving systems

The US infrastructure bill, which is awaiting President Joe Biden’s signature, puts a lot of focus on electric vehicle adoption. But there's another automotive area that the bill wants to work on. It aims to reduce drunk driving fatalities in the country with the use of advanced impaired driving technology, Washington Post reported.

As per the section 24220 of the bill, alcohol-impaired driving fatalities represent approximately one-third of all highway fatalities in the US annually. In 2019, there were 10,142 such cases involving drivers with a blood alcohol concentration level of 0.08 or higher.

The US Insurance Institute for Highway Safety believes that advanced drunk and impaired driving technology will help prevent more than 9,400 fatalities in the country annually. Thus, the US Infrastructure bill says, “Advanced drunk and impaired driving prevention technology must be standard equipment in all new passenger motor vehicles."

The bill states that the anti-drunk driving systems can either passively monitor the performance of a driver so as to determine if they may be impaired or passively detect whether their blood alcohol concentration is too high. If the system detects an impaired driver, the driver will need to prevent or limit the operation of the vehicle.

The bill mentions a timeline of three years for implementation of the Advanced Drunk and Impaired Driving Prevention Technology Safety Standard, and then automakers will be given up to three years to comply. However, these dates can subject to change if needed. The legislation has even envisioned a scenario where nothing happens for a decade.

Apart from this, the bill sets aside a budget of $1.75 trillion to give a big boost to electric vehicles, especially to Detroit's Big Three automakers and the US Postal Service. The bill boosts electric vehicle credits to up to $12,500 per vehicle, including $4,500 for union-made vehicles and $500 for US-made batteries.