Driverless car system can spot if owner is drunk, dozing off or texting and call police

Anyone hoping they could have a few drinks and then hop into their driverless car to get them home had better think again.

A tech giant is working on a system that will be able to spot whether the owner is drunk — and report them to police. Huawei is designing a “self-learning” interior cabin that would stop people who are over the limit being able to set off in vehicles in which the driverless features can be disabled. Being drunk in charge of a vehicle — even if not driving — will still be an offence.

The car would then decide on a course of action, ranging from a verbal warning, to locking up the controls — and even calling police.

The system would kick in even if the driver had no intention of taking over the controls. It would also be able to pick up if they are drowsy, distracted, texting or experiencing road rage.

The plans were revealed in an European patent for autonomous vehicles in which the driver can override driverless features and take control. According to the patent, the cabin will use machine learning — a branch of artificial intelligence — to understand the owner’s “intent and condition” before setting off. The car will take photos and videos to identify the driver’s normal facial expression and use sensors to analyse their tone of voice and preferred seating position. Every time the owner gets into the vehicle, the system will compare their expressions, gestures and speech with the archive footage and images.

The patent says that, if the car cannot confirm the driver’s state of mind, it could quiz them further before deciding on a course of action. The software will also be trained to spot “suspicious objects” — such as open alcohol bottles, bags of drugs or weapons — by cross-referencing photographs of the car interior. Huawei said the system “integrates driver images and images from the vehicle’s interior environment to determine and enhance safety, based on facial expression, gestures, speech and physiology”.

The Government is currently reviewing laws around self-driving cars, including whether criminal offences need to be introduced. Driverless technology is currently being trialled in London with a view to it being on UK roads by 2021.