Traffic and Highway Safety RFI

The Automotive Coalition for Traffic Safety (ACTS) and the National Highway Safety Transportation Administration (NHTSA) have entered into a Cooperative Research Agreement, to develop in-vehicle alcohol detection technologies as one strategy to combat the problem of alcohol-impaired driving.  This effort seeks to develop alcohol detection technologies that will quickly and accurately measure driver BAC noninvasively. These technologies will be a component of a system that can prevent the vehicle from being driven when the device registers that the driver’s BAC exceeds the legal limit. Such devices ultimately must be compatible for mass-production at a moderate price, meet acceptable reliability levels, and be unobtrusive to the sober driver. The agreement seeks to assess the current state of impairment detection devices, and to support the development and testing of prototypes and subsequent hardware that may be installed in vehicles

ACTS has issued a Request for Information (RFI) to solicit interest from companies with the expertise and capabilities to develop and demonstrate in-vehicle alcohol detection technologies that are less intrusive than present breath-based ignition interlocks. The technologies are envisioned as a key component of a system that can prevent vehicles from being driven when the drivers’ blood alcohol concentration (BAC) exceeds a preset threshold.

The due date for receipt of the RFI response is 5:00 PM (Local Eastern Standard Time) on Monday May 5, 2008. For further instructions please download the full RFI at: http://www.dadss.org/sites/default/files/ACTS_2008-0403_DADSS-RFI%5B1%5D.pdf

For additional information about the project please the website at http://www.dadss.org