How can self-driving vehicles guard against
other vehicles that have impaired drivers?
Problem
“Every day, about 37 people in the United States die in drunk-driving crashes — that’s one person every 39 minutes. In 2022, 13,524 people died in alcohol-impaired driving traffic deaths. These deaths were all preventable.”1
In addition to all the people who are killed by drunk drivers, more people die due to drug-impaired driving. 56% of drivers involved in serious injury and fatal crashes tested positive for at least one drug.2
Solution
Self-driving vehicles must guard against drunk drivers and drug-impaired drivers.
The cameras, radars, and lidars of self-driving vehicles can detect indications of impaired driving, and then the self-driving vehicles can stay away from the impaired drivers and even warn other vehicles about the impaired drivers.
We would love to enable you to integrate these helpful features into your autonomous vehicles.
Detect Indications of Impaired Driving
Warn Other Vehicles
A self-driving vehicle uses its radar and/or lidar to track a driving path of another vehicle that might have an impaired driver. The system analyzes the deviation of the impaired vehicle’s driving path relative to the lane in which the impaired vehicle is driving.
If the deviation of the impaired vehicle’s driving path is greater than a threshold, then the system sends a warning communication to other vehicles. This warning communication prompts other vehicles to keep away from the impaired vehicle.
The warning communication can include data to enable vehicles to identify the impaired vehicle (so if the vehicles see the impaired vehicle, they can keep away from the impaired vehicle).
The system can decide to only send the warning communication to other vehicles that are located within a predetermined distance of the impaired vehicle. This way, vehicles do not receive unnecessary warnings about impaired vehicles that are located far away.
The system can receive data from a self-driving vehicle that indicates another vehicle may have an impaired driver. The system can also receive an approximate location of the impaired vehicle. For example, the system can be notified that the impaired vehicle is currently located at a GPS location and headed west on Interstate 90.
The system can determine which self-driving vehicles are located within a predetermined distance of the impaired vehicle and then can send a warning communication to prompt the nearby self-driving vehicles to keep way from the impaired vehicle.
Whether a left to right deviation of a vehicle is suggestive of the vehicle having an impaired driver can depend on the speed of the vehicle. For example, deviating 3 feet (left to right) every 50 feet is more suggestive of impaired driving if the vehicle is traveling at 75 mph than if the vehicle is traveling at 25 mph. Therefore, the system can analyze the deviation of the driving path of the impaired vehicle relative to the lane in which the impaired vehicle is driving to determine if the driving path relative to the lane fluctuates more than a speed-relative threshold.
Use Collective Data
Self-driving vehicles can share information about other vehicles that might have impaired drivers. This collective information is often better at accurately identifying impaired vehicles than the information from a single self-driving vehicle.
For example, two self-driving vehicles can send information about the driving behavior of another vehicle that might have an impaired driver.
If the system determines that the information sent by both self-driving vehicles collectively indicates that the other vehicle has an impaired driver, then the system can send a communication to warn vehicles to keep away from the impaired vehicle.
Data from two or more self-driving vehicles can be used to generate a collective veering characteristic of the impaired vehicle. The system can decide to warn other vehicles if the collective veering characteristic of the impaired vehicle exceeds a veering threshold.
Notify Law Enforcement
Impaired vehicles are so dangerous that law enforcement intervention may be necessary to avoid injuries to the impaired driver and others on the road, including pedestrians.
When the system encounters a vehicle that might have an impaired driver, the system can generate (using radar or lidar data) numerical position data indicative of the path along which the impaired vehicle is driving. The numerical position data can represent leftward and rightward veering movements of the impaired vehicle.
In response to the system numerically analyzing the leftward and rightward deviations of the vehicle and determining that the vehicle is likely being operated by an impaired driver, the system can send a communication to traffic enforcement officers. This communication can report driving behavior information regarding the impaired vehicle.