Episode Overview

Podcast: WSJ Tech News Briefing
Episode: Why Aren’t We Using Tech That Could Reduce Drunken Driving?
Date: December 23, 2025
Host: Bell Lin, The Wall Street Journal

This episode examines why promising technologies aimed at drastically reducing deaths from drunken driving haven't yet become standard in new vehicles. WSJ’s Ryan Felton and Katy Dayton break down what solutions exist, how they work, the barriers to adoption, and what might drive (or hinder) their rollout, placing today's tech in context with previous automotive safety innovations.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Overview of Drunken Driving Reduction Technologies

[06:53]

• Driver Monitoring Systems:

  • Currently utilized for ensuring drivers keep their eyes on the road, especially in cars with some automated features.
  • These systems can potentially be adapted to detect impairment beyond distraction, such as alcohol influence or medical emergencies.
  • "Oftentimes until now it's been used for, you know, ensuring you're looking ahead at the road. But other companies are starting to think about how they could adapt that technology to detect other forms of impairment, be it alcohol, a medical episode, that sort of thing." – Katy Dayton [07:16]
  • Considered a "lower hanging fruit" because it doesn’t require direct measurement of blood alcohol content (BAC).

• Breath-Based Detection Systems:

  • Advanced sensors attempt to calculate BAC from ambient air inside the car before starting the engine.
  • As soon as someone sits in the car, the system checks whether they're over the legal BAC limit.

2. How These Systems Would Work in Practice

[08:11]

• There are concerns about what happens when a system detects impairment:
  • Should the car simply not start?
  • Should it allow some functions (e.g., heating or cooling) but prevent driving?
• Some pilot systems allow the engine to turn on for comfort, but block the ability to drive until the driver tests below the legal BAC threshold.
  • "So that way at least you could stay in the car and if it's warm, put your AC on, or if it's cold, put your heat on. But you wouldn't be able to drive until your levels were at something deemed safe and within the bounds of the law." – Katy Dayton [08:55]

3. Barriers to Widespread Adoption

[09:12]

• False Positives:
  • Fear that even a 1% error rate would create millions of problematic scenarios, since car start events happen hundreds of millions of times daily across the U.S.
  • "One person who had worked on this tech said you can't even have like a 1% false positive rate because think about how many times someone turns on their car every single day. It could be three, four times against every car in the U.S. that's hundreds of millions turning on and off several times a day. One percent ends up being a ton of false positives." – Katy Dayton [09:53]
• Consumer Backlash:
  • Example cited of unpopular non-safety tech (auto start/stop) as precedent for user frustration with features they didn't ask for.
  • Automakers are wary of pushing a technology that drivers might widely reject.
• Regulatory Uncertainty:
  • Ongoing debate on whether and how to mandate these technologies, and what actions cars should take when impairment is suspected.

4. Potential & Historical Parallels

[10:29]

• Drunken driving deaths are a recognized crisis, with over 10,000 fatalities annually in the U.S.
• Past safety innovations—seat belts and airbags—faced consumer resistance and skepticism but proved life-saving. Early airbag designs even caused injuries, fueling controversy.
  • "There is this sort of like ingrained fear in the industry of consumers overall, just like rejecting these sorts of safety devices. It's probably going to happen in some fashion, but it's likelier. That's going to be some sort of cautious approach that gives people some outs in some way, but still trying to be effective..." – Katy Dayton [10:59]
• Industry is likely to take a cautious, iterative approach to rolling out BAC-detection and impairment-intervention systems.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “[Driver monitoring systems] might be like a lower hanging fruit to pick off because it doesn’t involve actually measuring blood alcohol content. It’s using current technology to look at how you’re driving at any given moment.”
  — Katy Dayton [07:30]

• “The common held belief is it should be up to that regulation to dictate what the outcome should be. There’s the fear that the car won’t start. And that’s been a prevailing theme in a lot of the pushback to this idea.”
  — Katy Dayton [08:36]

• “You can’t even have like a 1% false positive rate because think about how many times someone turns on their car every single day... One percent ends up being a ton of false positives.”
  — Katy Dayton [09:53]

• “Airbags in particular drew a lot of controversy when they were first mandated – they were so forceful that they caused very serious injuries and deaths. And seatbelts, a lot of people just weren’t using seatbelts for a long period of time."
  — Katy Dayton [11:05]

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [06:27] – Bell Lin introduces the main topic: innovative, yet underutilized, anti-drunken-driving tech.
• [06:53] – Ryan Felton and Katy Dayton discuss current and emerging in-car impairment detection technologies.
• [08:11] – Discussion about what actually happens if impairment is detected.
• [09:12] – Exploration of why this tech isn’t yet widespread (user acceptance, false positives, regulations).
• [10:29] – Likelihood and precedent for rollout; industry outlook; lessons from seat belt and airbag histories.

Conclusion

Though in-car technologies capable of detecting and preventing drunken driving are advancing, major challenges—particularly technical reliability, regulatory clarity, and consumer buy-in—must be resolved before they become widespread. The industry recalls the tough paths of past safety innovations and is proceeding cautiously, mindful both of the enormous potential to save lives and the risk of public backlash if the systems aren't flawless.

This episode draws the direct line between innovation and public health—but also between innovation and consumer trust, offering an insightful look into why the cars of today still don’t have all the life-saving tech that’s technically possible.