Breathometer Aims to Save Lives by Stopping People from Driving Drunk

scharf10 said:

At the risk of sounding very boring, a good rule of thumb (at least in the UK anyway) is just don't drink if you're planning on driving.

I know some people get away with it, I just don't think it's worth risking it for the sake of a couple of drinks.

A clever device and app nonetheless - good luck to it, as I suppose it could benefit many!

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I operate under that method however, the reason I have bought a small breathalyser device is for the morning after. It's common at the moment to drive to my friends house, sleep there or in a tent and drive back in the morning.

A lot of people don't realise that you can be over the limit in the morning and quite easily too.

I wonder if they could make this work to prevent drunk texting, haha

dukebound85 said:

...I believe that to really combat drinking and driving, some responsibility MUST be placed on the establishment. Afterall, it takes two to tango

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While I agree that limits could help unfortunately no research has proven to be effective. The only thing that has been proven using actual data is that there was a state that had stricter rules had more accidents than the one w/ less laws on alcohol. Besides that one all other co-variables have affected the validity of all other tests. Anyways, if a person wants to get drunk they will get drunk, be it at the bar or move to the next one down the road or finish getting drunk somewhere else.

This is great! I can easily drink a lot and be over the limit but still walk, drive, and function fine. At least I can measure if I'm over the limit before I get a DUI.

If you have a breathalyzer on your keychain chances are you shouldn't be driving after the sun goes down.

This could be useful (at least a little) as a defense, showing you were trying to be responsible: "judge, I checked by BAC and it was .04. Here's the iPhone record. I know it's not black & white, but I thought I was safe to drive."

I'll put it in my giant bag of iphone plug in accessories, right next to the thermometer...

justperry said:

Anyone who needs this device already went too far, just don't drink before driving, that's it.

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It measures blood alcohol content. Although its primary use may be for people who've had a jar or two before getting behind the wheel, it's not the only way to get alcohol in your breath/blood.

Just don't drink before driving is great, do you mean just before driving, an hour before, two hours? One drink, two drinks?

People are impaired WAY before they think they are. That's playing a game of chance with other people's lives. Repeat that chance over time and you have people dying--sometimes by people who were not obviously trashed: their reaction time was altered but they thought they felt normal.

So this is a good idea.

Except... the same ego and denial that makes people take a chance on drinking "just one or two" and drive in the first place, will make people say they don't need to test themselves. They'll keep on trusting to their own "judgment."

Add to that, ad-fueled groupthink-driven alcohol culture is partly about image. Sucking the corner of your phone would shatter your reputation for "holding your liquor."

Maybe if they made it look like a beer can?

I guess maybe people can tell their friends it's just for defeating law enforcement. Surely that's cool at least! (And would keep them off the road: win-win.)

H2SO4 said:

It measures blood alcohol content. Although its primary use may be for people who've had a jar or two before getting behind the wheel, it's not the only way to get alcohol in your breath/blood.

Just don't drink before driving is great, do you mean just before driving, an hour before, two hours? One drink, two drinks?

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As in if you know you are going to drive and don't have plans on how to get back aside from you driving, don't drink at all

If you're unsure about whether you're ok to drive, you're not ok to drive.

dukebound85 said:

This idea is hardly unique nor new.

You can go to bed bath and beyond and pick up a 15 dollar portable breathalizer that does NOT require an iphone right now

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Where is the fun in that?

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This app and device would be so much cooler if it didn't let you start your car if you blew too high. An app that is a car starter, breathelizer, seat belt checker, and disabled text messages and phone calls while your car was on. Anybody wanna help me make this app?

WestonHarvey1 said:

I suppose it would be useful for peace of mind, especially if you were out trying some new beers or ales with unknown alcohol content.

Not everybody at 0.08 or the old standard of 0.1 is impaired to any real degree. There's some interesting YouTube videos of people testing their driving with objective standards and it really varies from person to person.

If I blew a 0.04, and 20 minutes later saw it drop to 0.03, I'd feel pretty comfortable about driving and not risking a DUI. Theoretically I can still be arrested, but the likelihood of conviction greatly decreases when the state can't prove you hit the per se limit. If it climbed to 0.05, I'd wait longer and test again.

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I've used something similar and it is useful for folks to understand what the legal limits feel like. In practice even two pints will put you over the lowest legal limit, three and you are definitely there. Most likely your driving skills are not impacted in any significant way. (Note that every rural and suburban town in the country has bars and basically every single patron has no option but to drive home from that bar at the end of the night. So millions of folks are drinking and driving in this country every day.) Above the point were you are a significant safety risk you (a) should know you are impacted and (b) should know that if you get pulled over you will get DWI that will result in you losing your license in many states. A DUI will also haunt you for years in terms of job applications, insurance, or the ability to rent a car.

So this really isn't a physical safety test as it is a legal safety question. But play around with something like this a few times and you will know the answer to the legal question. And the answer to that is that basically the standards are set so low that you are in trouble if you have had anything beyond a second beer. And if you are small or drink the beers quickly, you could pull a DUI on just two beers.

When you and your friends are drunk, these things turn into a game where you try and see who can get the high score

Get a DD, that's the only thing that works

scharf10 said:

At the risk of sounding very boring, a good rule of thumb (at least in the UK anyway) is just don't drink if you're planning on driving.

I know some people get away with it, I just don't think it's worth risking it for the sake of a couple of drinks.

A clever device and app nonetheless - good luck to it, as I suppose it could benefit many!

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Both yours, and the post before it are asinine. What if someone has a couple of glasses of wine with dinner, and does the responsible thing by checking their BAC before getting behind the wheel?

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QCassidy352 said:

If you're unsure about whether you're ok to drive, you're not ok to drive.

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It has nothing to do with whether you're OK to drive. It has to do with whether you are legal to drive under state law.

Useless toy

achtung! said:

the app doesn't stop anyone from driving, it only tells that they're drunk.

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It only tells how drunk the person blowing into it is. I have a friend that has a can of compressed air with a special nozzel on it that he uses to defeat the breathalizer hooked up to the ignition of his car.

It may be a neat toy, but totally useless to keep drunks off the road.

Welcome back to Game Center!
Ick...

If taxi is as reasonable as it is in Asia. Who'd want to drive to a bar or a party? You have cheap liquor and pricey transportation alternative. You can tell all the individuals that they shoudl be responsible, look at the consequences, yada yada yada. However when it comes to managing a mass population, you look at the economics and you can predict the outcome very easily. Human mind naturally magnifies immediate trade-off and brushes off long term, low probability events. Given the current trade-offs ($5 beer, $8 wine but $40 - $60 cab rides 1 way), it's no brainer how this is going to end up.

You dis-incentive drinking and driving, but doesn't give incentive for alternatives. When have a purely punishment based policy worked? Prohibition failed, drug war is failing too. These achieves nothing but feel goods and big governments.

More and cheaper taxi licenses, late night transportation alternatives, in additional to reasonable penalties on violation would be the right direction. Pure demonization is not problem solving at all.

If anything, policy maker should not put red tape all over services such as Uber. I view it as a private enterprise actualy contributing to solve the drinking and driving issue.
http://www.iphoneincanada.ca/news/taxi-app-services-face-proposed-regulation-by-cities-like-toronto/

H2SO4 said:

It Just don't drink before driving is great, do you mean just before driving, an hour before, two hours? One drink, two drinks?

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Yes

Reading some of these comments makes me think the DUI laws in USA are a bit inadequate.

In Australia, the legal limit is 0.05. If you are caught with more than that (and every single police car has a breathalyser) you lose your licence for a minimum of 3 months, have to face court, and have a criminal record against your name.
Oh yeah, and for your first few years of driving, the limit is 0.02. This pretty much equates to zero alcohol.

Times when the Breathometer may be useful:
Have a beer or two, then for an unexpected reason you need to drive;
The morning after a big night;
Helping to learn your limits.

I can see this being used for drinking contests - The person who gets the highest score within an hour wins

scharf10 said:

At the risk of sounding very boring, a good rule of thumb (at least in the UK anyway) is just don't drink if you're planning on driving.

I know some people get away with it, I just don't think it's worth risking it for the sake of a couple of drinks.

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And lets say you do have a drink, how long do you wait before driving home?

Do you wait 2 hours? 10 hours? 3 days?

The bus service where I live often involves an hour or so of walking, and you might be assaulted/robbed while walking... and a taxi can cost $50 or $60. More than any young person can afford. So after drinking, driving home is the only sane choice... the question is how long to wait.

dukebound85 said:

Gotcha. FWIW, after I posted, a few states still have no open container laws...though the vast majority do

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I believe that to really combat drinking and driving, some responsibility MUST be placed on the establishment. Afterall, it takes two to tango

Click to expand...

The problem is that everyone handles alcohol differently.

I've seen people walk into a bar 'seemingly' sober as heck, and one drink later they're smashed. This same scenario could happen to a sober person walking into a bar, or someone who has had 10 drinks and it doesn't hit them until the 11th.

Then some people can drink all night long, blow way over, and still be coherent, and seem sober.

It is not a bars duty to cut you off until they see the signs of impairment, or knowingly have served you a sufficient amount of drinks to deem you drunk.

I don't think any blame should be placed on a bar unless they knowingly over serve, and even that can be hard to prove in court.

Individuals should be accountable 100% for their own actions, people need to stop trying to find scapegoats for their own faults.

On Topic: this device is nothing but a novelty. If you need a device to tell you wether you're drunk or not, obviously you shouldn't be drinking.

Not a fan. They're drunk and delirious, they're making stupid decisions anyways.

I think it's pretty amazing what devices they can come up with for the just the audio jack on iOS devices.