Clearly, all the cards need to be on the table. In making code available, there are two possible threats to Intoxilyzer’s creators that I can see.

First threat – Intellectual Property Management – if their code is made public, it can be copied and used by another company. While this may be against the law, it would require a great deal of money to stop once it began happening. This threat is a financial one and should be trumped by moral responsibility. In how many companies would it be?

Second threat – Revelation of Bad Code – if there is a mistake, or parts of code they don’t have rights to, or practices which intentionally lead to higher results, they are toast as a company. This is a far more serious threat, but one which should STILL be trumped by moral responsibility.

The fact that they won’t hand over their code suggests one of the two above scenarios. In a situation where people’s rights are at stake, they need to come clean one way or the other.

I desparately want to see accuracy in breathalyzer results. I am a big fan of .08 because although there are ‘a lot of guys’ you and I may know who can be at a .08 and seem unaffected, the ultimate truth is that MOST people at a .08 exhibit symptoms of lethargy, slow reaction time, and lack of co-ordination. Driving is a serious and potentially dangerous task which should not be performed drunk, high, tired, or wired. .08 is a good, fair level to test for.

But the testing MUST be fair and accurate.

Allen Porter
President
DrinkingAndDriving.Org – Prevention, Education, Assistance