Driverless Cars and Drunk Driving?

“Officer, I only had a couple quarts of oil on the way home.”

With the imminent introduction of driverless car technology (okay, maybe not tomorrow, but within the next ten years), what will that mean when police see some inebriated person passed out in what used to be the driver’s seat?

In a car without a steering wheel or gas pedal, where you tell the car where to go, does it still matter that you are intoxicated when you “operate” the vehicle? Many states, including Michigan, use that wording currently. I would think that, should our legislators in Lansing not address the issue, juries and judges will apply their own logic to the law. More to the point, I don’t think DUI laws should apply if you aren’t actually driving.

We have plenty of time to talk about this technology and its impact on accidents, safety, and law enforcement before it becomes widespread, but it is something to think about, isn’t it? An interesting twist would be if you have the potential to manually operate the car, and whether that should matter. Maybe we need to contemplate all of the implications now before the technology overtakes us.

Link;

http://www.thestarphoenix.com/prof+ponders+impact+driverless+cars/11464796/story.html