Drunk Driver Test? There’s an App for That

[The Straight Story]

Drunk Driver Test? There’s an App for That

A drunken driving test may not seem the likeliest place to come up with a mobile phone app, but that’s when inspiration struck Nashville, Tennessee resident Clay Bradley.

Bradley said he was following a policeman’s pen with his eyes when it dawned on him that a smart phone could be used for the same purpose.

He mentioned his idea to some friends, and they came up with BreathalEyes. The 99-cent app, which launched in November, can be used to measure involuntary eye movements when people are intoxicated, which is one method police use in field sobriety tests.

....

The men said that their app is backed by science and when downloaded can detect a user’s blood-alcohol content with an effective range of between .02-.17 percent.

...

“At no point will the app say, `Yes you can drive, no you shouldn’t drive,”’ Ries said. “We feel ultimately that decision falls on the person. But if we can give them something to help them make a smarter decision, that is what we want to try and do.”

http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2012/01/04/229374.htm

[safeinOhio]

1. I was just texting someone about that a few miles back.

not really.

[ChoppinBroccoli]

2. Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus Is An Inexact Science

First of all, it's impossible to infer Blood Alcohol Content from HGN. It's either present in the eye or it's not. And its onset doesn't occur at any specific BAC level. So for the maker of this app to claim that it can tell you what your BAC is just based on HGN, even as a rough estimate, is completely false.

Additionally, there are about 20 different kinds of HGN, many of which are not caused by alcohol impairment, and I doubt this app would be able to tell the difference between them.

Finally, HGN can be caused by any number of different things. Alcohol impairment is just one of them. Many times HGN can be caused by illness, or injury, or fatigue. Even cigarette smoke has been known to cause HGN in some people. And there is a certain percentage of the population that has HGN just as a naturally occurring phenomenon in their eyes.

If people are using this app to determine whether or not they're safe to drive, then that's fine, but don't let this guy convince you that it's in any way a reliable indicator of just how impaired you might be. And let's be clear about one thing: drinking and driving is NOT illegal. Driving after you've had SO MUCH alcohol that it raises your BAC to a certain level IS. You can have a few drinks, raise your BAC to .07 (in most States), go out and get in your car and drive home, and it's NOT illegal (unless you're impaired at .07, which is another discussion altogether). So while HGN MAY be able to tell you whether or not there is alcohol in your system, it can't tell you when you've passed that .08 BAC threshhold. At the end of the day, the best advice is that if you're not sure whether you're impaired or not (to the point that you're willing to use a phone app to find out), you probably are, so don't drive.