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The Two-Lane Road from Law to Innovation: How Technology Improves Traffic Safety 

Author: Sasha Tanner 

New technologies are emerging for the sake of reducing impaired driving. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 (IIJA) prioritizes highway safety program funding for the upcoming years. More specifically, Section 24220 outlines the standards, procedures, and timelines for producing impaired driving technologies for passenger motor vehicles nationwide. 

  1. As a result, tech companies and researchers jump on this opportunity to develop innovative devices that detect intoxication. 
  1. Impaired driving technologies must be proven for accuracy and be compliant with federal standards within a 3-year span before manufacturing them into passenger motor vehicles. 

For example, one of the projects funded by IIJA includes the Driver Alcohol System for Safety (DADSS) Program, which implements two distinct alcohol detection systems within cars: 

  1. Breath-Based System: Upon entering the vehicle, the detector picks up the driver’s respiratory particles and assesses breath-alcohol content.  
  1. Touch-Based System: The driver will place a finger on a pad which will then identify alcohol levels in the blood.  

Researchers are developing a new device known as the phonocardiogram—that quickly and efficiently detects alcohol without contact in a process called “speckle pattern analysis” (Duadi et al., 2025) 

  • Phonocardiogram (PCG): measures the sounds produced by the cardiovascular system by using an optical sensor, i.e., a laser beam to an artery or vein, to detect alcohol content in the blood 

The research group tested three potential PCG models and found that model C, characterized by three binary classifications, had the best balance between accuracy (88%) and sensitivity (99%). Model A exhibited a five-label model and a three-label one for model B. This allows for police to easily and effectively collect information on the suspect’s alcohol levels without potential resistance. 

  1. DADSS are PCG aren’t the only devices being produced. In the years to come, you may see a variety of different impaired-driving technologies emerging into new motor vehicle models. 
  1. This presents a significant effect on law enforcement responses to DWI offenders; changes in collecting biological samples to present to the court would be a likely response to these innovations. 

To read more about the IIJA, DADSS, or the PCG, click on either of the sources below! 

Sources  

  • Duadi, D., Yosovich, A., Beiderman, M., Agdarov, S., Ozana, N., Beiderman, Y., & Zalevsky, Z. (2025). Remote sensing of alcohol consumption using machine learning speckle pattern analysis. Journal of Biomedical Optics, 30(3), 037001. https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JBO.30.3.037001