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Driver Monitoring System technology enables real-time assessment of a driver’s functional state relative to the driving environment
CANBERRA, Australia, April 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Seeing Machines Limited, a global leader in vision-based monitoring technology, has released the second part of its Technical Paper series exploring driver intoxication and impairment.
The latest instalment, available here, outlines how Driver Monitoring Systems (DMS) provide a fundamentally different and more versatile approach to road safety by detecting real-time functional impairment, regardless of the underlying cause.
For more than a century, road safety initiatives have focused on deterrence through law enforcement and public awareness campaigns. These approaches have typically relied on static chemical thresholds, such as blood alcohol concentration, as proxy indicators of risk. When extended to other substances, they require distinct chemical markers and dedicated sensor configurations for each drug.
While effective as deterrents, these methods do not directly assess a driver’s real-time fitness to operate a vehicle.
Part Two of this series highlights the critical distinction between intoxication and impairment. Intoxication refers to the presence of substances in the body, whereas impairment reflects the extent to which those substances affect functional capacity and driving performance.
Camera-based DMS technology focuses on impairment. It detects visual indicators of reduced driving capability, tracking both the severity and progression of symptoms to enable timely, potentially life-saving interventions. Because the system assesses functional state, it does not rely on breath, saliva, or sweat-based detection methods for individual substances.
“Our second paper reinforces that effective in-cabin safety systems must focus on a driver’s functional state, rather than identifying a specific chemical cause,” said Dr Mike Lenné, Chief Safety Officer at Seeing Machines.
“By detecting the physical signs of impairment directly, camera-based DMS provides a versatile safety net, capturing risks arising from both substance and non-substance related causes, and complements existing roadside deterrence strategies.”
This cause-agnostic approach enables intervention strategies to be aligned with immediate crash risk. It positions DMS as a critical technology for the future of automotive safety, capable of addressing complex challenges such as polydrug use and combined fatigue, without requiring multiple specialised chemical sensors.
Part One of the Technical Paper series, Blood Alcohol Concentration is an Insufficient Ground Truth for Real-Time Impairment Detection, released in December 2025, is available here.
Seeing Machines will continue to release future papers in the series to advance DMS capability and improve road safety outcomes.
About Seeing Machines (LSE: SEE)
Seeing Machines is a global company founded in 2000 and headquartered in Australia, is an industry leader in vision-based monitoring technology that enable machines to see, understand and assist people. Seeing Machines is revolutionising global transport safety. Its technology portfolio of AI algorithms, embedded processing and optics, power products that need to deliver reliable real-time understanding of vehicle operators. The technology spans the critical measurement of where a driver is looking, through to classification of their cognitive state as it applies to accident risk. Reliable “driver state” measurement is the end-goal of Driver Monitoring Systems (DMS) technology. Seeing Machines develops DMS technology to drive safety for Automotive, Commercial Fleet, Off-road and Aviation. The company has offices in Australia, USA, Europe and Asia, and supplies technology solutions and services to industry leaders in each market vertical. www.seeingmachines.com
Media Contact:
E: Sophie.Nicoll@SeeingMachines.com
T: +61 419 149 683
