In May 13, 1979, an idiot who had a fight with his girlfriend decided to get shitfaced. Not enough being drunk, he got behind the wheel of his caramel colored Dodge Dart and proceeded to speed down the hillside roads near where he lived. It had been drizzling all day and he lost control in a curve, invaded the incoming traffic lane and t-boned himself into the dodge Aspen of a 19 year old college student.
Me.
So, rest assured that I have a Torquemada-devotion type of hate for drunk drivers. My position was and still is that the fucker attempted against my life and he should have paid even more than the 9 months he spent in the hospital recovering from his fuck up. And if you add to the injury the fact I was arrested for “investigative purposes” (That was the law back then in Venezuela) our family lawyer realized I wanted to inflict more damage on the asshole and warned me severely against even being in the same zip code with the guy till my case was resolved.
Now that you know my “credentials” allow me to state that I am absolutely opposed to the latest Biden Bullshit faux solution for drunk driving:
It’s a tragedy she feels could have been prevented, and now part of the recent infrastructure bill would mandate anti-drunk driving technology in vehicles.
“It’s the simple fact that there’s technology out there that could spare another family my pain, that could spare another community’s pain is huge,” Read said.
Some of the driving monitoring technology will slow the vehicle down and pull the car over if the driver shows signs of impairment
“This technology is going to save lives,” Phaedra Creed, Mothers Against Drunk Driving State Program Director, said.
Creed says for years this nationwide organization has been pushing for law just like this one. With this type of advanced technology, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration believes this could prevent more than nine-thousand drunk driving deaths a year.
President Biden’s infrastructure bill could help prevent DUIs | News | wsmv.com
No, it is not gonna save nine thousand people from dying, somebody is trying to push the idea that some gadget created by man (and obviously can be disabled by Man) will suddenly eliminate 90% of the DUI deaths a year
This is a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top of the shit pie that is the Infrastructure bill to garner support from the original Mommies Demand organization that has/had some clout among Americans.
Of course the fact that the magic anti drunk system will only result in an increase on the price of vehicles, will mean nothing to the government and MADD and it will be seen as the sacrifice you have to make for a safer society.
And I have to fear the idea that not only the device will affect driving, but how? It does only stop the vehicle or will it also sent notification of your law violation to the local LEO?
Sorry, but what could have been dismissed as conspiracy theory 2 years ago, is now regarded as spoilers of things to come. For some reason I have the feeling that .Gov would love the idea of making every car depending on government programming to function, pretty much like John Deere is doing with their farm equipment.
And yes, I am crazy, but that does not mean I will be proven wrong. But I hope I am.
Hey Miggy
The .gov crowd and their bootlickers would love it, if we had to have their permission to go anywhere…to restrict the movement of the citizens means we will become little more than serfs to the land needing our lords permission to leave the zip code.
My mom-in- law cannot breathe deeply, and has been proven to not get enough breath to satisfy the drunk widget.
Keep your old cars, if you can.
Doesn’t that mean that, under the provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act, automobile manufacturers must provide “reasonable accommodation” to allow such people to purchase and drive new vehicles?
Well, it’s only a logical extension of the technology…
Blech. And while I have thankfully not had Miguel’s experience, I live in a state with an extremely high DUI rate. While I want to see this problem addressed, I do not think this is going to be an effective way to do it. It’s like smart guns: trying to use a technological approach to fix human nature.
RE: “Trying to use a technological approach”
It won’t work, any more than mandating so-called “smart guns” will work, and mostly for the same reasons. Ironically, last I checked (it may have changed), in America the number of privately-owned vehicles and the number of (reported) privately-owned firearms is about the same: 300-500 million.
If they can’t get gun owners to retrofit or replace their guns, what makes them think they can get vehicle owners to do it?
And even if they could, what’s to stop drunk drivers from simply driving an older vehicle that doesn’t have the anti-DUI systems installed? Which also assumes the system isn’t easily defeated or worked around. Or that it detects any other, non-alcoholic intoxicants — will it be able to test for THC? Meth? Heroin? Fentanyl?
Will we have another George Floyd moment when someone else OD’s in police custody after they pull him over for driving erratically and arrest him for being clearly intoxicated, only to find that the fed.gov-mandated Breathalyzer didn’t detect alcohol and so the police MUST have murdered him?
Sometimes I think the Biden Administration is just probing the waters to see what they can get away with. Punishing safe drivers by issuing a prior restraint before being allowed to drive, to make sure you’re not going to so something you weren’t going to do anyway, is right up their alley.
The sad thing is, if it’s part of any omnibus bill, “infrastructure” or otherwise, it’ll probably pass into law, with bipartisan support.
So if you’re trying to get away from an attacker, you have to stop and blow the car first? If you’re panicked and hyperventilating, will you satisfy the device? What if you’re asthmatic?
This used to be limited to court orders for repeat drunk drivers; now we’re all assumed to be habitual drunk drivers.
Some of us remember that the 1974-model cars, by law, originally came with an interface that made it impossible to start the car if the driver hadn’t fastened his/her seatbelt. The same objection (the need to get away from an attacker) was raised, enough that the requirement was repealed almost immediately. (Also, no one was buying the cars.)
As Thomas Sowell said, whenever the government tries to solve a problem, it makes it worse.
There will be seat mounted rectal sampler, for the less compliant, I am sure.
Or wearing the CDC-recommended, soon-to-be-Biden-mandated double masks? Will you be able to provide enough air pressure into the tube through two masks for it to register?
And for those it is intended to stop, it would be easy enough to get somebody else to blow for them. Their kid, their girlfriend, the guy that is so high they won’t let him drive but isn’t booze.
Another “let’s punish everybody if it saves just one life.”
Oh I’m sure it will be a “passive” detection system.
Which means cameras pointing at the driver and some sort of AI to analyze the driver’s behavior to detect impairment. Maybe even microphones to detect slurred speech.
But I’m sure that this data wouldn’t be recorded and recoverable in the event of an investigation, or be remotely accessible without the driver’s knowledge.
What? Why are you laughing?
And the market value of my 10 year old truck just increased again. Not that I’m selling by any means. But it does mean that when things happen, the cost of repairs is far preferable than buying new.
And you get to pay for it as well as the monthly calibration. Good times.
While I do agree with Miguel 100%, there ‘could’ be a potential…..’thing’ or result that I would like. Which is, people who use their phones to talk and text while driving—with one hand on the phone and the other one attempting to communicate while driving–could potentially exhibit the same driving characteristics that drunk drivers do–weaving back and forth, slowing down, speeding back up and veering toward the centerline etc.
I assume that the new technology will be added to the driver assist technology already in many new cars–where when you cross the centerline the steering wheel vibrates and mildly resists steering the car in that direction. The new technology will take control of the wheel, and move the car over while slowing it down to a stop.
Phone using drivers have a lot in common with drunk drivers. I hate them both and want both groups off the road.
About a year ago I drove a loaner car (Tesla S) for a day that had the sort of “assist” feature you described. I tried it out for grins. Might have been just the traffic-aware cruise control, actually.
As I approached a fork in the road, one going straight and one bearing left, I went straight. Right at that point the car very suddenly slowed down. I’m still not sure why; my best guess is that it got confused by the fact that the straight branch went over a little rise, and it mistook that rise for the shoulder. Or traffic.
In any case, I turned the cruise control off and resumed manual operation. So much for “smart” cars.
I’ve said before, here and/or elsewhere, that “AI” means “a large pile of software whose properties are not known by anyone, and that cannot be described accurately or certified to have any specific properties”.
Agreed. The “adaptive cruise control” in my 2020 sedan is effing dangerous. From time to time, it would abruptly and significantly slow the car, in traffic of course, for no apparent reason, earning me flipped birds snd shouted curses from those behind me. It seems to have real trouble distinguishing parked vehicles at the curb from vehicles actually in the road. At least it hasn’t caused me to be hit from behind, and it won’t get the chance now, because I’ve stopped using it.
My only experience with adaptive cruise is on a semi tractor…and it’s DANGEROUS. Biggest issue: it can (and has) suddenly nail the brakes with no warning. There is a certain spot where I know to cancel it because the combination of a slight uphill and headlights hitting a toll gantry sets it off at night…from 65MPH to full braking with no warning.
Technology is not perfect. Sad times ahead….
The cover story is the usual ” It’s for your own good ” BS. Who could be against saving innocent lives? The unspoken is that it will allow the remote disabling ( via unspoken of built-in I.T. “backdoor” ) of not only ONE car, but any number of cars in a specified area, keeping people from free movement for ANY purpose whatsoever. Especially preventing coordinated vehicular movements. See it now, do you?
We had a salesman who drove a mercedes, brand new. One day he showed up in a volvo. The Mercedes would abruptly apply the brakes when he was accelerating to get on a freeway. Mercedes techs told him there was no issues with the car.
As I said before- why isnt drunk driving a felony?? THAT would cure a few..
Making drunk driving a felony, by itself, won’t stop it – the drunk drivers will happily drive without insurance and registration, in someone else’s car.
There have to be real, substantive, effective penalties for it to stop. Just like any other crime.
Put them in a minimum security prison for a five year stretch. You may not cure them, but that is five years they are not endangerig the public by drinking and driving.
Second DUI should be 30-life.
“It’s a tragedy she feels could have been prevented”
Read that and immediately knew it was madd related. They are increasingly the peta of drunk driving.
You wanna fix drunk driving, something you will never stop but that ks besides the point, fix the tort laws first. Everyone and their brother can be sued right now for the actions of a single person.
Next would be self driving cars. I hate the idea lf giving the technology total control, but that would do more than this dumb shit.
So, before you are allowed to start the car, you must prove you are not drunk?
Last time I checked, the standard in this country is innocent until proven guilty, but this “safety” feature assumes you are guilty, and you need to prove innocence.
Nope, anti American. Then again, so is this administration.
Lets see, the sensor is installed in a car that is likely to be parked in freezing cold below zero in some places, or over 110 F in others. Subject to vibration from driving on rough roads, and exposed to varying humidity. Maintaining operability, let alone calibration un those conditions will be difficult. How frequently will it require calibration? How much will the calibration cost? Contrary to liberal beliefs, technology is not “magic” that works every time, all the time. What happens when you’re out in the boonies, have a serious injury that requires a trip to the hospital, and your breathalyzer picks that time to quit? What about the mechanic that needs to blow in the tube several times to start your car to check things out under the hood? Routine service will get really expensive.
My only experience with any kind of smart drive feature was some adaptive cornering assist the first night I was driving my current car home where it ‘helped’ me stay in the turn and scared me so bad I pulled over and started an ad hoc exorcism in a Home Depot parking lot.
If they truly want to cut down on drunk driving stop playing cutesy with drunk drivers. People on double digit offenses that get to keep their license because of who they know or some judge who doesn’t think its a big deal. Go off on the people who drive without a license, we have a HUGE illegal somali population here who do not have licenses and treat cars like the town bicycle. I’ve seen a hit and run where the car is abandoned and the towing company wont pick it up cause they know no one will pay to retrieve it then later that night one of the village comes in and drives away.
Nuke RW beat me to it.
What happens when it breaks down? Are you stuck in the middle of nowhere at -30F or +110F? With no heat and no A/C? With maybe a carful of kids? Or an elderly family member? Or you are out ice fishing on a lake in the middle nowhere? Camping in the mountains or desert?
What happens if you have a eight year old car, and they don’t have parts for the breath-a-lyzer. Do you junk it? Do you spend $1,000 to replace it?
Bad Idea on steroids. You have about three years to find a new car. Expect to see some early high end models with this crap in the next two years.
They don’t care if it breaks down, stops working, or costs you more to maintain. They already don’t care that your car rots away in 5-10 years from all of the brine they apply the roads.
Sorry you had to drive an Aspen when you were younger