Monday, July 02, 2012

Did I hear this right?

Item on the radio news: Starting next year, every car to be sold in Europe must be equipped with a Breathalyzer.

So, I assume: you're gonna have to blow every time you plan on driving somewhere?

I can totally see the nanny staters here being all over this. And that offends me. I don't even drink, so why treat me as a potential DUI? And even beyond the whole ethical thing of suddenly treating everyone like potential lawbreakers even when they would never do anything so witless as driving drunk, there's another issue:

What happens if the technology fails? What happens if John Q. Employee gets into his car at 7 am on Monday morning after having drunk nothing stronger than Coffea arabica and the car won't start up, because the breathalyzer is crapped out? Sure, John's wife Jane could probably drive him to work as long as her car's breathalyzer was working, but what about Single John or Single Jane - or one-car families?

I really don't like this idea. Therefore, I expect we'll see it here within ten years.

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