Remote Breathalyzer

Foredecker writes: "I couldn't believe my eyes when I read an EE Times article about about remote breathalyzer technology developed by TCU. This device is apparently intended for installation in new cars. In essence, it is a sensor in your car which would signal any nearby police if you had been drinking."

Comments

Re:Problems

[hylander_sb]

Perhaps his point was that Christians tend to concern themselves with alcohol consumption, at least in this country. It's a stereotype, true, but not unearned.

They already have this

[rrossman]

I work (possible flame bait) at Circuit City in the car audio department (I'm an installer). I know first hand they already have devices you "blow into" to see if you are drunk or not. If you are fine, it let's you drive. If it senses you are drunk, the car won't start. (Pretty much it's just a Starter Kill which is nothing more than a relay tagged into your car's starter line). The only way to get these devices is if the court orders someone to have it installed in their vehical because of an alcohol related incident. Obviously someone who hasn't been drinking can just blow into the device incase someone does cut their foot with an axe (as suggested above).. or if you just want to cheat the system, and the car would start. This new device mentions about detecting air in the vehical, not just what's comming out of the driver. I live in a college town (Home campus of Penn State), and I know alot of people around here who designate drivers. This new device means more people getting pulled over for no reason, just because someone in the vehical was drinking. For some reason this just doesn't go over for me. But no problem.. how long do you think it would take someone to come out with a signal jammer if they did put this device into vehicals (or to put tape over the sensor)

I Saw This Presentation

[Milican]

I recent Engineering grad from Texas A&M University and I saw some TCU students (I believe the ones mentioned in the article) give a presentation for this at a conference I went to last Spring. I'll come right out and say I didn't like the concept of my car reporting to Big Brother. So if you see any bias in this comment now you know why. Full disclosure I suppose.

Anyway, If you read the article closely you will see that each of the cars has a radio link that reports to everyone around you the sobriety of the driver. The Linx radio unit is actually a very cheap way to do low bandwidth wireless communications. So slashdot hardware hackers take note :)

As you can imagine the alcohol monitoring concept did not go over well amoung my classmates. Personally, I think they might as well put a blinking alcohol barometer on your car. Of course, we were college students and our demographics do not lend well to this experiment.

Another problem I had was with the obvious false positives from an alcohol sensing fuel cell. Perhaps they did find a way to distinguish from ethyl alcohol from bars and rubbing alcohol in perfumes. I know the article says they had, but I have serious reservations about the statement. But since I can't prove either way I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. As many have pointed out here what if you are the designated driver? What if you just went to a bar and someone spilled even a little beer on you? This has happened many times to me. The sensors will have to be ultra sensitive to pick up airborne molecules of alcohol.

Although the motives of the students are well meant because we all don't want drunk drivers hurting our loved ones the cost to civil liberties are immense. A 24/7 "air tap" for alcohol would be an extreme invasion of privacy. There is no way you could get a wire tap without a court order and I don't know how these guys think they can get car manufacturers and the American pubic to agree to volunatary constant surveillance via an "air tap".

In any case, to be fair these are Engineering students and their job isn't to decide the politics of the unit. Thats for Political Science types. I agree that their intentions are good, but the implementation is certainly not. I should also mention that the students and faculty I met from TCU were all nice and personable individuals and this comment was not meant to be a personal attack on them in any way. I simply do not agree with their topic of research.

I am at work right now. But I will try to find some of the notes and info I took from the conference when I get home tonight. I should at least have a copy of their presentation on the conference CD-ROM. So stay tuned.

JOhn

seen this before

[reverse flow reactor]

There has been discussion of this kind of technology in Canada. Except that it would be installed in the ignition sequence of a car belonging to an already convicted multiple drunk driving offender. Before starting the car, the device would require a breath sample. Fail the sample, car does not start. Pass the test, car starts. Noone knows the results of the test except the driver. And the device is only installed on the cars of persons already convicted of drunk driving and the device is part of their sentence.

As for circumventing the device by getting a sober friend to give the sample: the sober friend might as well drive, if he/she is there to give a sample.

I for one like the idea of reducing the number of drunk drivers on the road.

Better devices already exist

[Logic Bomb]

I once read about devices that courts in some state(s?) could order people convicted of DUI to have installed in their cars. It's basically a breathalyzer connected to the ignition system. Before the car will start, one must use the breathalyzer and be under a set limit for breath alcohol content. This is obviously easy to defeat as well, but if you aided a drunk in this manner and someone got injured or killed, you'd be criminally liable for what happened and would be charged along with the driver. Anyway, this sort of system seems much more American to me; only people with previous convictions must prove innocence down the road.