This article, from CBS News, talks about the ROADS SAFE Act and both sides of the argument about whether or not it is a good idea. The first thing that this article mentioned, that I had yet to understand, was that this technology would be an optional tool to put into cars. The ROADS SAFE Act is just for the funding to research the technology. After the technology is designed, it would be up to the government to decide if this would be something required for every car or an optional feature. While there are many people who are for this type of technology, there are definitely people who are against it, especially because they feel as if it will be something required in cars and that it will become very intrusive and that it could cause people who were not drunk from being unable to drive their cars. While the legal limit is .08, some people feel as if this technology would be set so that the cars detected alcohol at .03 or .04. The reason for this is because alcohol needs time to work its way through the body. Someone could have a bunch of quick drinks and then get into their car, but their blood alcohol level would still be below .08 because they hadn’t given the alcohol time to absorb into their bloodstream. Setting the limit on these devices to a lower blood alcohol level would help prevent these types of situations because the system would detect the alcohol even before it increased the blood alcohol level, but it also poses a problem for the person that goes and has one drink at dinner and is still capable of driving home. As stated before, this technology could potentially save 9,000 lives by eliminating the possibility of drunk driving, lives that are invaluable.
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