Breathalyzer safety interlocks are a great idea, in theory, to keep known alcoholics from driving drunk. The problem, as anyone who's ever seen the film "the 40 year old virgin" will know, is that it's quite simple to bypass such a device by having a friend who is not intoxicated blow into the breathalyzer on your drunk ass behalf.

So my idea is to incorporate facial recognition into the system. A camera takes a snapshot each time someone blows into the device, and stores a small amount of saliva (for DNA) in a sealed compartment. Another camera takes a picture of whomever it is that is occupying the driver's seat once the vehicle gets up to, say, 10 MPH.

If the pictures don't match, the vehicle immediately shuts down, the doors lock, and the police are summoned.
-- 21 Quest, Jun 12 2012

This is an overly complicated solution to a nonexistent problem.

Breath interlocks require the driver to not only test to start the car, but periodically while driving, called a "rolling retest". If you fail a retest while driving, the car doesn't shut down, but it logs a violation and the driver faces additional penalties. Theoretically a sober passenger could be providing the breath test, but the logistics of this are so incredibly stupid and unlikely that nobody is really all that worried about it.
-- ytk, Jun 12 2012


'This is an overly complicated solution to a nonexistent problem'.

I thought that was the purpose of this site.
-- Phrontistery, Jun 13 2012


No, that would be the site itself.
-- ytk, Jun 13 2012


The problem isn't nonexistent. It's just not very widespread.
-- 21 Quest, Jun 13 2012



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