We've all been there at some point. You're at a party, or out at a bar, and you have to figure out how to get home.
Most of us will wait to sober up, crash at a friend's house, take a cab, or have a designated driver behind the wheel. That's because driving while under the influence is dangerous, injuring 61,000 people each year, and killing 10,000, according to the CDC.
Yet catching inebriated drivers can be difficult. Scientists in Poland are working on a novel method.
In principle, detecting drunken drivers is easy. When you are drunk, alcohol is released in your breath. That alcohol vapor remains in your car cabin for a while, and a stand-off detection laser can be used to detect those chemicals.
Lasers could be set up to detect potentially drunk drivers remotely, and send an alert to nearby officers.
However, alcohol vapor can easily be evacuated from a car's cabin by rolling down a window. Not to mention, this could lead to many designated drivers being pulled over, because the laser can't detect who in the car is drunk.
The technology has a long way to go, but what do you think? Is this an invasion of privacy, or is it a tool for keeping roads a safer place? Let us know at Wedekind Motors, and be sure to check out our used inventory.