Wireless phone company NTT DoCoMo in coordination with Germany's Siemens Electronics, are in development of a system capable of determining whether a driver for a bus, taxi or truck company has been drinking alcohol — wait for it — via cell phone. Basically, a small alcohol-on-the-breath sensor made by Siemens is attached to one of DoCoMo's new-wave 3G handsets. The driver breathes into the sensor after receipt of a phone call and the results of the test are transmitted to the driver's manager who can then verify whether the actual driver took the test via the phone's videophone function. Normally we'd consider such a system invasive and anti-privacy and all that jazz — but since these people drive either us or huge mother-truckin' vehicles capable of death and destruction on a massive scale, we're ok with it.
DoCoMo Cell Phone Can Test Whether Drivers Have Been Drinking [textually.org via Gizmodo]
Related:
News Flash: NHTSA Determines Inattention Causes Accidents [internal]