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Alcohol-Sensing Cars - NTSB Catches Up With Philip K. Dick (1963)

Passive vehicle-integrated alcohol impairment detection systems should be required in all new vehicles, says the United States National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). The alcohol-sensing equipment would be linked in with the starter, to prevent drunk individuals from even starting their cars.

The NTSB can't issue such a regulation on its own but urged the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to do so. The NTSB said it "is recommending measures leveraging new in-vehicle technologies that can limit or prohibit impaired drivers from operating their vehicles as well as technologies to prevent speeding."

If adopted, this would require "passive vehicle-integrated alcohol impairment detection systems, advanced driver monitoring systems or a combination of the two that would be capable of preventing or limiting vehicle operation if it detects driver impairment by alcohol," the NTSB said. The agency urged the NHTSA to "require all new vehicles to be equipped with such systems."

(Via ArsTechnica)

So the NTSB and the NHTSA in 2022 are finally catching up with Philip K. Dick in his 1963 novel The Game Players of Titan:

It had been a bad night, and when he tried to drive home he had a terrible argument with his car.

"Mr. Garden, you are in no condition to drive. Please use the auto-auto mech and recline in the rear seat."

Pete Garden sat at the steering tiller and said as distinctly has he could manage, "Look, I can drive... Start, darn it!"

The auto-auto said "You have not inserted the key."

"Okay," he said, feeling humiliated. Maybe the car was right...
(Read more about Dick's alcohol-sensing system)

If you're curious, I have a collection of about 240 amazing and insane inventions of Philip K. Dick; why not take a look at the future?

Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 9/11/2022)

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