Awareness Behind the Wheel

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Perspectives

Sleepiness at the wheel is one danger seen through three lenses: what technology can do, what the law asks, what culture teaches us to ignore. For alcohol there is a limit and a test; for sleepiness, nothing: the danger without a signal.

Growing section · 6 of 11 entries online
Published: 10.07.2026
Last revision: 26.09.2026
26.09.2026New layout in three chapters; states and dates updated
21.09.2026The three lenses become real headings, the cover that repeated the title is gone
26.08.2026Eleven entries across the three lenses: Nyepi joins the culture lens
12.07.2026Entries as cards, dating and section map
11.07.2026Eight entries declared across the three lenses

ALCOHOL

0.50 ‰

The limit set by Swiss law. A device measures it on the spot.

SLEEPINESS

does not exist

No limit, no test, no number that ends up in a report.

Source of the limit: ch.ch, the Swiss authorities’ portal. For novice and professional drivers the limit is 0.1 per mille.

Audiatur et altera pars.

Let the other side be heard too. It is a rule of the courts, and it is the rule of this section: a danger is not judged by looking at it from one side only.

Technology

The machines that watch the driver - what they can do, and where they stop.

online

How the Car Notices Sleepiness

Steering, gaze, lane: the systems that read the body's signals. What they can really do - and where they stop.

In the works

  • What the camera sees - and what it cannot

    in development

    The driver-facing camera promises a lot. But between seeing the eyes and understanding the mind lies a distance.

Law

Responsibility, proof, fitness to drive - where the law meets a danger that leaves no trace.

online

Ten years after Quinto: the limit of proof

A trial without measurable evidence. Ten years on, the question raised by the Quinto case remains open.

In the works

  • I have sleep apnoea: can I drive?

    in preparation

    Diagnosis, therapy, fitness to drive: what Swiss law really says to those with a sleep disorder and a steering wheel.

  • Art. 31: responsibility before the journey

    in development

    The law requires alertness before departure. But how do you assess what cannot yet be measured?

Culture

The habits and beliefs that keep us at the wheel when we should be sleeping.

online

The sign that doesn't exist

There is a sign for nearly every danger on the road. Not for sleepiness. The story of an absence.

online

When an island decides to stop

One day a year, all of Bali stands still. Nyepi, the legitimacy of stopping and a question for road safety.

online

The stolen hour

A 1917 poster promised to 'save daylight'. But the body's clock does not move - and the cost reaches the road.

online

Ramadan, sleep and the road

A month when the sleep rhythm changes. Care, not blame - a reading through the culture lens.

In the works

  • The threshold: when waking becomes risk

    in development

    You don't fall asleep suddenly: you slide. The border between waking and sleep is a place, with laws of its own.

  • The cult of not sleeping

    in development

    Little sleep as achievement, endurance as virtue. Where this idea comes from - and what it costs us behind the wheel.

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