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Apps / Municipal government / Public safety

This app will tell you if you’re too drunk to drive

Maryland state officials rolled out the ENDUI (“end DUI”) app last week, just in time for holiday party season.

Fisker isn't Fisker anymore. (Photo by Flickr user Derrich, used under a Creative Commons license)

You’re out drinking and set to leave the party. But first, of course, you must turn to your phone. Perhaps you’ll grab an Uber, you think to yourself, or maybe you’ll chance it and drive home.
That’s where state officials are hoping their new ENDUI app will come in.

ENDUI

ENDUI’s “breathalyzer” feature. (Via iTunes)


The newly-released mobile app is designed to provide a lifeline to people considering drinking and driving. Available on iTunes and Google Play, the free app has tools that can help users find a cab, and make a shortlist of friends who could be called as designated drivers. And if you’re still considering getting behind the wheel, the app can tell you if you’re too drunk to drive.
One step short of a mobile breathalyzer attachment, the marquee feature estimates blood alcohol content (BAC). Users enter their weight and gender. Then they enter what they’ve had to drink. The feature even breaks down drinks into specific categories of beer (dubbel or winter ale?), wine (saké or white?), shots (whiskey or tequila?) and cocktails (Manhattan or Martini?).
The app also features a games section where users can test their reaction time to the appearance of other cars, and their ability to concentrate on road signs.
Both sections come with a disclaimer: They’re only for informational purposes. In other words, you can’t submit them as evidence that you were sober if you get pulled over.
After each feature, the app warns, “driving with any amount of alcohol in your system may impair you and be illegal.”


The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration provided about $50,000 to Maryland’s Highway Safety Office to develop the app, showing there’s a nationwide push to develop mobile sobriety tests. States like New York, New Mexico, Oklahoma and California already have similar apps, as well.
“Last year in Maryland, 152 people were tragically killed in impaired driving-related crashes, accounting for about a third of all traffic fatalities in 2013,” Deputy Transportation Secretary Wilson Parran said in a statement. “Sadly, every single one of these deaths was preventable.”

Companies: State of Maryland
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