“Hawking” is selling. “Hocking” is pawning.

I was with a friend on a road meet in my 91 Miata in Washington State. We passed through a small rural enclave and an old bearded coot said, “What are you guys doing in that gay car?”

Miata will still be the answer to all questions.

That’s because humans were not meant to operate self-checkout machines. They were designed so that supermarkets could fire people, and that’s all they’re really good at. I didn’t get an education so that I could do a minimum-wage job for Safeway Corporation on my time off.

You’re equating doing an interlock re-test with distracted driving based on one anecdote.

> We’ll never get them all off the road, but that is no reason to let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

This.

I know how the devices work - I do research in this area and have worked with people in the industry. Some devices have you inhale, others have you hum. In either case, you get to do it a thousand times and get good at it, as you do with other driving tasks. The people who use them sometimes complain, but remember…

>Drunk driving is no where near as dangerous as this shit.
Says who?
Seriously, BAC isn’t a good measure of how impaired someone is.
It ain’t bad, and police use other methods too. Generally, if you’re slurring your words and offering a beer to the officer you’re probably not in shape to drive. They pick up on subtle…

Yes, there’s a huge issue. A lot of people need to drink, and are determined not to let driving get in the way of their drinking. The re-test is the only way to keep them from starting sober and then chugging the vodka the keep in a sippy cup in the console.

They normally give you 5 - 7 minutes. And you do it a lot, so it become second nature.

Less distracting - no need to look at the device at all. It beeps, and you blow. Really, there are thousands of people using this device, and after one problem, everyone now thinks they’re bad?

No. They couldn’t start the car if they were drunk in the first place. It’s expecting a person who is not drunk to hear a beep, blow into a tube for five seconds without taking his or her eyes off the road. A lot safer than having a drunk driver out there.

Nope - an interlock will NEVER stop a car. It only works on the ignition. If you fail or ignore a test while driving, your horn might blow and your lights flash, forcing you to pull over so you don’t make an idiot of yourself. But it’s wired to the starter - no way it can shut off an engine.

As I wrote in another comment, 30 states mandate them for all offenses. Some just for high-BAC (over .15 or so) and some for repeat offenses only. Very rural states like North Dakota are pretty much no-man’s-land for drunk drivers.

Interesting thought. The problem with the “lose your license for good” bit is that at least half of people without licenses drive anyway - and they’ll drive drunk and uninsured. That’s why interlocks are a better idea.

All interlocks have the running retest - it’s not a function of the DUI charge. Whether you get the interlock or not can depend on the charge - it goes by state. 30 states now mandate the device for all drunk driving offenses over .08. Others make it .15 or .16 or for a repeat offense, and for a few states it’s at the…

All interlocks have the running retest - it’s not a function of the DUI charge. Whether you get the interlock or not can depend on the charge - it goes by state. 30 states now mandate the device for all drunk driving offenses over .08. Others make it .15 or .16 or for a repeat offense, and for a few states it’s at the…

Possibly. The person claimed that was the reason. Remember, he might resent the device and want to blame it.

No, people have been caught because of the picture. The data is monitored on a regular basis, and if the authorities can see some funny stuff going on they can make it a violation. Obviously this depends on how well a state does its monitoring, but people have been nabbed with the camera.

This. For the vast majority, it does keep them from drinking while driving. No technology is perfect, but there are lots of these devices on the road, and have been for years, and you don’t hear about accidents due to them.