SmartPhone Apps for Drunk drivers?
Posted: Tue Apr 19, 2011 5:34 pm
April 16, 2011: NY Times: Helping Drunken Drivers Avoid Tickets, but Not Wrecks
New smartphone apps have been created to help folks avoid sobriety checkpoints.
Now as a sober driver who doesn't like the delay of checkpoints, nice idea.
However, the checkpoints are meant as a deterrent to DUI. So thes apps could hypothetically be used by drunks to avoid checkpoints. However, one has to wonder: if you're too drunk to operate a vehicle how will they have the mental acuity to check their application?
It's bad enough with sober drivers driving like drunks, weaving and swerving as they incessantly check their cellphones.
Now add a layer of complexity: a impaired or drunk driver checking his/her cellphone...will it make them drive straight? Or run off the road into a tree?
DUI is no joking matter. And the inconvenience of sobriety checkpoints is nothing compared to their success rate in ridding the streets of drunk drivers.
Research in Motion, the maker of BlackBerrys, after being asked by some Senators, removed apps from their online stores that helped drunken drivers evade sobriety checkpoints.
Apple & Google? Not yet.
See the full article: Helping Drunken Drivers Avoid Tickets, but Not Wrecks
Here's a link to some of the applications: Buzzed and Phantom Alert
New smartphone apps have been created to help folks avoid sobriety checkpoints.
Now as a sober driver who doesn't like the delay of checkpoints, nice idea.
However, the checkpoints are meant as a deterrent to DUI. So thes apps could hypothetically be used by drunks to avoid checkpoints. However, one has to wonder: if you're too drunk to operate a vehicle how will they have the mental acuity to check their application?
It's bad enough with sober drivers driving like drunks, weaving and swerving as they incessantly check their cellphones.
Now add a layer of complexity: a impaired or drunk driver checking his/her cellphone...will it make them drive straight? Or run off the road into a tree?
DUI is no joking matter. And the inconvenience of sobriety checkpoints is nothing compared to their success rate in ridding the streets of drunk drivers.
Research in Motion, the maker of BlackBerrys, after being asked by some Senators, removed apps from their online stores that helped drunken drivers evade sobriety checkpoints.
Apple & Google? Not yet.
See the full article: Helping Drunken Drivers Avoid Tickets, but Not Wrecks
Here's a link to some of the applications: Buzzed and Phantom Alert