Free Republic

Congress is requiring in its $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill that automakers install monitoring systems in their cars to stop drivers from operating their vehicles while intoxicated. Monitoring systems to stop drunk drivers would roll out in all new vehicles as early as 2026, according to the new legislation. Some convicted drunk drivers already have to use breathalyzer devices attached to their vehicles' ignition interlock. By blowing into a tube, the system will disable the vehicle if the individual's blood alcohol level is above the legal threshold. The Driver Alcohol Detection System for Safety (DADSS) program is a public-private partnership partially...

Remember the Tom Cruise movie “Minority Report?” It was the one where the “Precrime” police unit armed with new technology arrested you before you committed a future crime they could detect. Fast forward to today’s self appointed traffic cops. In their ideal future, any automobile you’ll purchase will have an in-car alcohol detector to stop you from “drinking and driving” before you get the opportunity. (Despite drunken driving fatalities being at an all time low, i.e., one per every 274,244,948 miles driven, some activists can’t rest until they can get to every last drop). To be clear, I’m not talking...

Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., is the lead player in a legislative effort, already endorsed by a handful of other senators, that would spend $60 million to develop a program that would charge consumers for the costs of installing drunk-driving interlock devices in vehicles. The proposal, S.510, was introduced this week in the U.S. Senate by Udall, who was joined by Sens. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, Bob Corker, R-Tenn., Al Franken, D-Minn., Amy Klobuchar D-Minn., West John D. Rockefeller, D-W.Va., Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I. The legislation actually doesn't call for the technology to be installed in...