Can Your Smartphone Tell If You’re Too Intoxicated to Drive?

Safety

They say there’s an app for everything, and now that includes self-administered breathalyzer tests. People who enjoy a drink (or two, or more) who want to know if they’re fit to drive, now have a choice of a number of such apps on the market. The goal is to reduce injury and death from drunk driving accidents.

Smartphone Breathalyzer Apps Display BAC, Call You a Cab

Someone out for a few drinks may feel like they’re okay to drive, but by using a smartphone breathalyzer, they can make sure of it. The apps display a user’s blood alcohol content (BAC) on screen after they blow into a miniature breathalyzer.

BACtrack is already on the market, with an app for iPhone and other iOS products. The app is free but the device, which connects wirelessly via Bluetooth, costs $149.99. Other smartphone breathalyzers will start shipping this month or later this year. Breathometer, Floome, and Alcohoot use devices ($49, $65, and $99, respectively) that plug directly into iPhones and Androids. In addition to displaying your BAC, these apps can let you track your drinking habits over time, estimate when you’ll be sober again, and even call you a cab if you’re over the limit.

The devices are manufactured to FDA standards and claim to give readings accurate to 0.01 percent.

If you’re looking for cheaper options, consider one of the other drunk driving-related apps that try to determine whether you’re fit to drive. BreathalEyes scans your eye movments, IntoxiCheck tests your reaction time, and Drink Tracker uses your gender, weight, and number of drinks consumed to estimate your BAC.

Making Drivers Aware

None of these apps are intended to stand up in court, but all are meant to help the user determine if they’re better off calling a cab or getting a ride home instead of driving. Some would argue that if you even think you need to use one of these apps, you’re better off not driving.

CEO of Breathometer Inc., Charles Michael Yim, who pitched the product on Shark Tank, said that he hopes the technology will help people realize the state they’re in. He told Reuters, “People think, ‘Oh, I’m driving around the corner,’ but it’s not until they get pulled over that they realize they’re over the limit.”

The legal limit is 0.08 in all 50 states, but for some people, even driving with a BAC of 0.04 or 0.02 might be too risky, as alcohol affects individuals differently.

Drunk driving fatalities have decreased 52 percent since 1982, but it still claims approximately 10,000 lives every year. Traffic accidents are the leading cause of death for people aged 5-34, and about one third of traffic accidents involve driving under the influence.

Will Smartphone Breathalyzers Help?

There’s no data on whether these devices have saved lives or prevented accidents, and because of how they’re used, it’s unlikely that there will be. But any step towards helping get drunk drivers off the road is worth trying.