New Technology Could Measure Blood Alcohol Through Steering Wheel, Door Handles
The breathalyzer may become a thing of the past, thanks to new technology that can be installed in your car. And it’s not like you can fake your way around it, as it’s located in key components of your vehicle, like the steering wheel and door handles.
The court-ordered breathalyzers that can be used in cars now take time to work and they also need to be installed as an after-market component. With this new system, developed by a research company called QinetiQ and funded by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Automotive Coalition for Traffic Safety, the technology comes built-in to vehicles as they are made and are inconspicuous to the driver.
This new technology measures blood alcohol content in a driver’s finger tips with a new touch-based sensor that’s installed in the vehicle’s steering wheel or door handles. It’s super quick too, as it only takes less than a second to register the booze in a driver’s system. The technology could be available to automakers in eight to 10 years
“We believe this might turn the car into the cure for the elimination of drunk driving,” says Laura Dean-Mooney, president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. But on the other side of the coin, there are those against the new technology. “For ordinary, law-abiding citizens, it’s an invasion of their privacy,” says Christen Varley, president of the Greater Boston Tea Party.
What do you think? Do you think this device will protect drivers or is it an invasion of privacy? Let us know in the comments section below.
[Source: Oh Gizmo]
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This technology has been around for at least 10 years now and it's a injustice to americans that it has not been available and still isn't.... Not only will this prevent drunk driving accidents it will do away with dui's as a whole and drasticly reduce the stress on the court system and lower insurance premiums. Which is exactly why there is resistance to having this readily available to americans the amount of money that would be lost to the courts and county's could throw alot of them into bankruptcy. The average cost of a dui is over $5,000.00 per person not to mention the cost of the prisons and the rehabs.There is something drasticlly wrong with ourgovernment when they put their financial gain over the lives of the american people......
Invasion of privacy?! Driving is a right, not a privilege, PLUS, it's not like the information would be transmitted to anyone outside your car, like the police department. This would be a god send! Imagine the lives saved and the lower insurance rates!