By the SEMA Washington, D.C., office
The National Highway Traffic Administration (NHTSA) recently announced an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) to gather the information necessary to develop performance requirements and require impaired driving prevention technology in new passenger vehicles. Congress directed NHTSA to establish a Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) on "advanced drunk and impaired driving prevention technology" in 2021 when it passed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (Section 24220).
The NHTSA is gathering information to develop performance requirements for impaired driving prevention technology.
The ANPRM presents three regulatory options for how the agency might mitigate driver impairment: blood alcohol content detection, impairment detection (driver monitoring) or a combination of the two. Section 24220 defines "Advanced Drunk and Impaired Driving Technology" as a system that:
- (A) can passively monitor the performance of a driver of a motor vehicle to accurately identify whether that driver may be impaired; and prevent or limit motor vehicle operation if an impairment is detected.
or
- (B) can passively and accurately detect whether the blood alcohol concentration of a driver of a motor vehicle is equal to or greater than the blood alcohol concentration described in section 163(a) of title 23, United States Code; and prevent or limit motor vehicle operation if a blood alcohol concentration above the legal limit is detected.
or
- (C) is a combination of systems described in subparagraphs (A) and (B).
SEMA solicits feedback from our member companies developing alcohol detection technology or feel the new FMVSS will impact them. The ANPRM initiates a rulemaking to gather the information necessary to develop performance requirements and require new passenger motor vehicles to be equipped with advanced drunk and impaired driving prevention technology. This phase will help the agency review the maturity of advanced drunk and impaired driving prevention technology and develop the foundational elements for potential technology standards in all new passenger vehicles when the technology is mature. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act also stated that an FMVSS should be issued only if it meets the requirements of the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act.
NHTSA will open a 60-day comment period once the ANPRM is published in the Federal Register. For more information on the state of technology, we have provided this resource from The Driver Alcohol Detection System for Safety (DADSS) Research Program.
SEMA encourages aftermarket businesses to provide feedback on the rulemaking directly to our Government Affairs staff to ensure the association's official comments to NHTSA reflect the breadth of views and feedback from our member companies. Please send your comments on the ANPRM to Tiffany Cipoletti at tiffanyc@sema.org.