General Motors filed a patent for a system that uses cameras and a lidar sensor to analyze a person's gait and flag potential impairment before allowing vehicle access.
The filing, submitted in September 2024 and published last month, describes measuring gait parameters such as swaying, walking speed and stride length. Those parameters are processed by a long short-term memory (LSTM) recurrent neural network to produce a gait score compared to an impairment threshold.
If the gait score exceeds the threshold, the system could issue visual or audio alerts, activate secondary checks like a breathalyzer, or prevent the person from driving; if below, the individual can access the vehicle normally. General Motors also says the sensors could identify medical emergencies.
The patent does not guarantee production. The filing comes after the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety said DUI-detection tech will be required for Top Safety Pick+ awards by 2030 and raises accessibility and privacy questions for people with physical disabilities.
This report is based on information originally published by Jalopnik.
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