Schneider will become the first truckload carrier to conduct a trial deployment of "lifesaving technology" developed through the Driver Alcohol Detection System for Safety Program.

DADSS is a public-private partnership between the world’s leading automakers and the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to invent, test, commercialize and deploy new alcohol detection technologies in vehicles. 

As part of this trial deployment in collaboration with the Automotive Coalition for Traffic Safety, Schneider will outfit eight of its cabs with the latest breath sensors in 2022.

The sensors will log more than 100,000 sensor miles for each vehicle outfitted, for a collective total of almost one million miles.

The pilot will help refine the technology by increasing the stress that the system is put under on the road, exponentially increasing the number of miles driven, and exposing the system to new drivers and a wider range of environmental conditions — all key to the DADSS program’s quest to commercialize fully passive vehicle-integrated breath technology.

The collaboration will be carried out through the Driven to Protect Initiative with the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles. Since 2018, the Commonwealth of Virginia has been helping to test in-vehicle alcohol detection technology that will determine if a driver is impaired with a blood alcohol concentration at or above the applicable legal limit in the Commonwealth — and prevent the vehicle from moving.

 “The progress [Virginia has] made since 2018 has advanced this game-changing anti-drunk driving technology, and I am excited to see how this new partnership will bring the technology one step closer to saving countless lives on our roadways,” said Virginia DMV Commissioner Richard D. Holcomb.

ACTS recently announced that the first product has come out of the DADSS research lab and is being made available for open licensing for use in commercial vehicles. This first-generation breath system will be used by fleet operators implementing a zero-tolerance alcohol policy for their drivers. Additional product updates are planned, with a goal of releasing a new product update every 18 months over the next 4 years. A consumer version of the breath system is expected by 2024 and a touch system by 2025.

Last month, Congress demonstrated its commitment to advanced technology solutions by including them in the new Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which lays out a process for deploying advanced drunk and impaired driving prevention technology.