Met a woman who had her life irrevocably changed by a drunk driver. She advocates for screening devices in each and every car. Now, I know. But considering the $$ and suffering, is it the stupidest idea? Serious question Told her I thought it was worth some thought.
At this point, I think any move to such systems would either be integrated into the shift to universal deployment of advanced driver assist systems, or pre-empted by true self-driving vehicles. Any system now likely wouldn't be a simple alcohol detector, but would more likely monitor driver responses and behavior to try to detect drugged and drowsy drivers too. The DUI driver who killed my friend Gilbert 16 months ago, only claimed to be drunk to try to hide what he was really on. The portion of DUIs that are from something other than alcohol seems to keep rising.
While I've settled down a bit as I've gotten older and have no interest in drinking until I'm safely at home thanks to the pandemic... Having a couple-few beers when I was younger before driving home was a pretty normal thing. And I suspect to everyone who still does this, the ability to cheat these systems to get your car started would become easier, not harder because it would no longer be an obstacle to just people under court order but to everyone. As in there's other options to ensure people don't drive drunk that we need to provide major funding for. Specifically eye tracking cameras that can monitor driver impairment will work far better then a breath test because it would also take senile old people off the road, as well as the people who are owned and operated by the RX industry for the rest of their life. We could get a huge number of cars off the road and reduce traffic in major cities simply by preventing a vehicle from operating if the driver isn't checking all their mirrors and being aware of the cars around them. This would also help put the focus on bad drivers rather than everyone being allowed to drive as long as they don't drink and can pass a driver's test every few years.
Yes, eye tracking software already is established in cars... Would be pretty cool if you get dash lights and a red triangle saying "driver impairment detected" and have the car start driving you home unless you proved that you were just upset about something and could regain control of the car by demonstrating your ability to track all the vehicles around you without missing a single one before you got home. And yes it'd be even better if the most oblivious among us could keep driving on auto pilot but at this point the promise of self driving cars has been around for more than a dozen years and it's still failing in huge ways because there's been no training on basic social skills when driving: Self-driving cars lack social intelligence in traffic -- ScienceDaily and Autonomous Cars Are Getting in the Way of Emergency Responders in San Francisco: Report
Driving is a privilege, not a right. Still....we live in a nation that won't even adopt red-light cameras or DUI check points, so a device to (try to) see if you're all hooched up is not really ready for prime time. SUPER easy to bypass. Expensive. Probably not very effective. Legally dubious. Probably not very ethical either if somebody really needs to GTFO after....what? 1 beer? 2? Pass. I've always said that part of the difference between utopia and dystopia will be determined by whether cars have a steering wheel or we all have to take Johnny-Cabs. Looks like we're getting closer......
I'm not seeing how a phone app might be able to collect the necessary information to make a good determination.
Maybe not the stupidest, but..... What about meth, cocaine, marijuana, prescription abuse drugs, etc? For alcohol DUI, breath-alizer starters seem to be the current technology, but there are "cheats" to defeat this. Whether eye-scanning tools would work, I do not know. To lessen injuries, death, and accidents, I advocate for coordination tests to attain a driving license...such as, from a parking space on an uphill, drive away with a manual transmission vehicle. Helmets and 5-point seat belts would also lessen injuries. Blocking telephone conversations and texting would be good too, yet, more than likely impossible because of the GPS maps, music, and all. Oh well, I know I am in a minority bloc for these ideas. So again, maybe not the stupidest question, and always worth some thought. Best of luck wished to your female friend.
NOT until all licenses (marriage, drivers, pilot, and 'some' others) have reciprocity in all 54 states! Nobody ever mentions public transportation as a viable option in the US that has ever been forced to actually USE it, which is a shame. I have fond memories of Seattle's various transit systems back in the 80's
I was already clear on that definition, I just don't get why we must work on that before say, putting a couple more buses on the streets.
OH..... My mistake. I thought we were talking about improving public transportation with the end goal of increasing ridership. Different cities have different modes of measuring the health of their transportation systems, and there are some metros that are seeing a more robust post-Covid rebound, so I'm thinking that this will require what mariners refer to as 'local knowledge.' rather than just throwing other people's money at the problem. There are no local public transportation options where I live, but they are finally replacing the ancient 2-lane US Highway bridge that prevents me from being able to cycle the 2-3 miles to work - so that's a start. I'm thinking that there might be a mixed-use lane for cycles and golf carts.....
... back before riders needed some built-up tolerance for fentanyl smoke in order to survive the trip.
I see no reason to remove my qualification to drive an automatic just because I am unfamiliar with a manual. Needing a ‘Manual Certified’ flag on said license, to drive a manual, I’m good with.