The road to Hell is paved with good intentions. Of course, it won’t matter since most of us won’t be able to afford the electric vehicles Democrats also want
U.S. Senate bill seeks to require anti-drunk driving vehicle tech
A $1 trillion infrastructure bill under debate by the U.S. Senate includes a provision that directs U.S. regulators to mandate a passive technology to prevent intoxicated drivers from starting vehicles and avert more than 10,000 deaths annually.
For more than 15 years, automakers and others have studied potential technological fixes to address the roughly one-third of annual U.S. traffic deaths that involved impaired drivers. (snip)
Questions remain, however, whether the technology is accurate enough for widespread use and which one would be adopted.
In 2019, lawmakers told Reuters that automakers could use devices that would determine a driver’s blood alcohol level by their touching the steering wheel or engine start button, or could install sensors that would passively monitor a driver’s breath or eye-movements.
The bill would require the U.S. Transportation Department to set a technology safety standard within three years – and then give automakers at least another two years to comply – as long as new requirements are “reasonable, practicable, and appropriate.”
The bill said if regulators do not finalize new safety rules within 10 years, the department must report to Congress.
And how much would this add to the price of a vehicle? How intrusive would it be? Would the car report back to law enforcement with tracking data? Or simply be disabled? What if there’s false readings shutting it down while driving? Yes, it’s good to keep the drunks and drugged off the roads. What’s the catch? There’s always a catch.
Oh cool, $50 million for STUDIES on how to tax us more with road usage and per-mile fees.
You are useless, @gop. Useless. pic.twitter.com/x29f7o9EtP
— Oilfield Rando (@Oilfield_Rando) August 2, 2021
Remember when Obama jacked up the CAFE standards, and then, when gas taxes dropped due to much better fuel economy they wanted to implement a road user fee, as well as extra taxes on hybrids and the small number of EVs? There are quite a few crazy things in the bill.
