Name: Sean Patrick Murray
From: Duxbury, MA
Votes: 0
Many
people in their life either will or have experienced the situation
You’re leaving a party or the bar after a night of drinking and as
you are walking out you notice your friend getting into his car. “You
alright to be driving?” you’ll ask them. They’ll give the
unconvincing response “I’m fine, I only had a few drinks”.
You don’t want to be known as the overprotective and anxious friend
so you decide to let it go and trust that he or she gets home safe.
According to The
Washington Post by making that decision you subject
that person to at least a 400% increase of the possibility of getting
into a car accident. Such pressure should not be put on another
person. Rather, we should be implementing an idea already used into
all cars across America. The Ignition Interlock Device, an addition
to a car that allows it to perform its own breathalyzer test on the
driver. With the set threshold automatically set to 0.08% BAC the car
will not start if a higher number is recorded. If such a device was
used in all automobiles or better yet all motor vehicles in general,
the operation of vehicles could be a whole lot safer for the driver
as well as pedestrians/other cars as they will not have to worry
about reckless driving due to being under the influence. With the
completely real possibility of annibriated operators getting other
people to pass the test for them, DNA tests would undoubtedly provide
results in discovering the person who took the test and they could
face conviction for falsifying a state mandatory breathalyzer test in
order to drive a vehicle. With such a stable and fair addition to
cars, this would make a huge difference in the mortality rate of
motor vehicle related deaths, reducing the amount of alcohol caused
accidents tremendously as they are currently the reason behind over
50% of nationwide accidents.
Another
possible improvement to cars would simply be the new AI system that
is recently being introduced into the automobile business. I
personally believe the possible future ability for the car to
restrict you from switching lanes or crossing white/yellow paint that
could be detected with sensors in the front in order to prevent
swerving as well as unexpected turns/lane switches. It is a common
occurrence for people on today’s roads to fail in turning on their
blinker when looking to turn through ignorance or simply forgetting.
Such a small flaw in the majority of our population has resulted in
many accidents as well as other negative reactions such as road
rage, the feeling of overall safety for others around the
unpredictable driver, and the possibility of causing other cars to
collide due to an attempt to avoid the driver’s dangerous car
motions.
Even
though the idea of an AI system sophisticated enough to to perform
the actions previously listed are years away from being incorporated
into production, I personally believe the IID could make a
substantial difference in the safety of drivers as well as the people
around them. Such a small installation would bring the first security
system for the driver himself making the car more of a privileges you
would no longer be able to drive whenever you’d like but rather
only when you are not too intoxicated to drive by state standards.
