High Tech Urinals Let You Know When You’re Too Drunk To Drive

BlutarskyTFM13 years ago

Drunk driving is a problem everywhere, it seems. Despite increased law enforcement and numerous public service campaigns, people are still driving drunk, and sadly, people are still dying. Fortunately, there are some new ideas out there to keep people off the road after they’ve had too much to drink.

Zouk, a nightclub in Singapore, in conjunction with a marketing firm called DDB, has placed some unique urinals in the restrooms of the club. These particular pissers have the ability to determine how much someone has had to drink and can even let them know if they’re over the limit to drive.

The club actually has a pretty intricate program in place to minimize drunk driving. When patrons give their keys to the valet, they’re given a claim ticket with RFID (radio frequency identification) capabilities in exchange. When they go to take a piss, the sensors in the urinal determine their BAC based on how much alcohol is in their urine and lets them know if they’re too drunk to drive.

Should someone decide to ignore the urinal’s warnings that they’re too drunk to drive, there is a fallback plan. The sensors in the urinal tag the RFID claim ticket so that when a drunken patron goes to get their car, the valets will know that the patron is too drunk to drive. At this point, the valets offer to call patrons a cab or take the club’s own driving service, which is probably incredibly expensive.

In only two weeks, 573 people were tagged as being legally drunk. Of those 573, 342 decided not to drive. While that’s not the best rate, the fewer drunk drivers there are on the road, the better.

Even though you don’t have a magic urinal to tell you when you’re drunk, you still have options. If you’ve had too much to drink, don’t drive. Just have a pledge take you to your next destination. You get a free ride and you get to haze the driver. It’s a win-win.

[via Gizmodo]