As directed by Section 24220 of IIJA, subsection (c), “not later than 3 years after the date of enactment of this Act [November 15, 2021], the Secretary shall issue a final rule prescribing a Federal motor vehicle safety standard [FMVSS] under Section 30111 of Title 49, United States Code, that requires passenger motor vehicles manufactured after the effective date of that standard to be equipped with advanced drunk and impaired driving prevention technology.”

Subsection (e), “Timing,” provides for an extension of up to three years if the Secretary determines a FMVSS cannot meet the requirements of 49 U.S.C. § 30111 (a) and (b), enacted as part of the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act (Safety Act). Subsection (e) of Section 24220 also states that the Secretary:
(2) shall, not later than the date described in subsection (c) and not less frequently than annually thereafter until the date on which the rule under that subsection is issued, submit to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate and the Committee on Energy and Commerce of the House of Representatives a report describing, as of the date of submission of the report: (A) the reasons for not prescribing a Federal motor vehicle safety standard under Section 30111 of Title 49, United States Code, that requires advanced drunk and impaired driving prevention technology in vehicles; (B) the deployment of advanced drunk and impaired driving prevention technology in vehicles; (C) any information relating to the ability of vehicle manufacturers to include advanced drunk and impaired driving prevention technology in new passenger motor vehicles; and (D) an anticipated timeline for prescribing the Federal motor vehicle safety standard described in subsection (c).

NHTSA is committed to establishing well-defined requirements that also minimize false positive detections and driving restrictions for sober drivers. Currently, detection technology around the legal limit continues to have an error rate that would be unacceptably high. Accuracy is especially critical for this technology, given the estimated 227 billion driving trips that take place annually in the United States. Estimates of the annual number of trips involving alcohol impairment account for a small fraction of all trips, but remain high. While NHTSA has not made a final determination about the necessary level of accuracy, even a 99.9 percent detection accuracy level could result in millions to tens of millions of instances each year where the technology would incorrectly prevent or limit drivers from operating their vehicles, or fail to prevent or limit impaired drivers from doing so. At this time, NHTSA is not aware of any technology that claims to achieve anywhere close to this level of accuracy in minimizing false positives (misclassifying a sober driver as impaired) and false negatives (failing to detect an impaired driver), and no such capabilities have been verified independently to date.

​​​​​​​NHTSA remains dedicated to combatting impaired driving and the high number of deaths and injuries caused by impaired drivers through a combination of law enforcement activities, campaigns, and technological research that may enable rulemaking. NHTSA continues its work on critical and complex topics including technology readiness, test procedure development, and consumer acceptance, as well as cybersecurity and privacy concerns. These issues must be addressed to enable NHTSA to propose a rule that could satisfy Section 24220 of IIJA and the requirements of the Safety Act. NHTSA will continue to provide annual reports to Congress and publish status updates in the Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions.