Volvo's New Electric Car Won't Drive if It Detects That You're Drunk

Imagine if your car could tell if you were too drunk, sleepy, or distracted to drive, but could stop the car.

The details of Volvo's "driver understanding system," one of the cool features of its upcoming flagship EX90 electric SUV, was announced in a new statement.

One of the most interesting uses for Volvo's light detection and ranging (LIDAR) sensors is driver understanding, one of which will be mounted outside the car to help detect on-road obstacles and the other two of which will focus in on the drivers' eyes.

If the car's sensors detect that the driver is drunk, it will issue a series of warnings to the driver and then slow the car down and put its hazard lights on.

"Our research shows that by simply observing where the driver is looking and how often and for how long their eyes are closed, we can tell a lot about the state of the driver," Emma Tivesten said in the statement.

Tivesten said the system allows cars to identify whether the driver's ability is impaired due to distraction or other causes and to offer extra assistance in a way that best suits the situation.

According to the statement, different eye patterns can show different states to the car, which will alert the driver. If the driver is looking at the road too little, it means they're not paying attention to the task at hand, but if they're focused on it too much, it means they're lost in thought and not paying attention to the task at hand.

Volvo has long been interested in using the technology to help curb accidents caused by distracted or impaired driving.

The system may help weed out drunk drivers. We can only hope that other EV-makers do the same.

When you are not at your best, your Volvo car will help you.

There are more electric vehicles because full self- driving isn't actually full self-driving.