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Cyberattack on a Car Breathalyzer Firm Leaves Drivers Stuck (wired.com) 118

Last week, hackers launched a cyberattack on an Iowa company called Intoxalock that left some drivers unable to start their court-mandated breathalyzer-equipped cars. Wired reports: Intoxalock, an automotive breathalyzer maker that says it's used daily by 150,000 drivers across the U.S., last week reported that it had been the target of a cyberattack, resulting in its "systems currently experiencing downtime," according to an announcement posted to its website. Meanwhile, drivers that use the breathalyzers have reported being stranded due to the devices' inability to connect to the company's services. "Our vehicles are giant paperweights right now through no fault of ours," one wrote on Reddit. "I'm being held accountable at work and feel completely helpless."

The lockouts appear to be the result of Intoxalock's breathalyzers needing periodic calibrations that require a connection to the company's servers. Drivers who are due for a calibration and can't perform one due to the company's downtime have been stuck, though the company now states on its website that it's offering 10-day extensions on those calibrations due to its cybersecurity disruption, as well as towing services in some cases. In the meantime, Intoxalock hasn't explained what sort of cyberattack it's facing or whether hackers have obtained any of the company's user data.

Cyberattack on a Car Breathalyzer Firm Leaves Drivers Stuck

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  • Next time... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by TurboStar ( 712836 ) on Tuesday March 24, 2026 @03:09AM (#66058078)

    Next time don't drink and drive. Are we supposed to have sympathy for these sociopaths? I mean both the drunkards and the corporate dregs making a profit off of this. Feels like a popcorn moment. The only news I'd care about is if they didn't recover from the cyberattack and why. I don't care if some CTO gets fired or some drunkard can't unlock their car. Call a fucking cab.

    • Re: (Score:1, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Next time don't drink and drive. Are we supposed to have sympathy for these sociopaths?

      I’m going to assume you have zero personal faults and do not require any form of medication strictly because of shitty life choices to be able to stand on such a pedestal. Otherwise, remind me why I should have sympathy for sugar junkies suffering from preventable diabetes when the insulin factory gets hacked. Call a fucking nutritionist.

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by thegarbz ( 1787294 )

        I’m going to assume you have zero personal faults

        Drink and driving is not a mistake or a personal fault. It's a conscious and truly FUCKING DUMB decision that should have significant consequences for you personally and no one else.

        Comparing it to diabetes is just stupid. No one killed anyone else by getting diabeties, unless they accidentally sat on them.

        • Drink and driving is not a mistake or a personal fault. It's a conscious and truly FUCKING DUMB decision

          No, one of the characteristics of alcohol is that it reduces the ability to differentiate between good and bad ideas. It is fundamentally not a conscious decision.

          that should have significant consequences for you personally and no one else.

          We should also have functional public transportation, which was destroyed in America by a literal conspiracy.

          • No, one of the characteristics of alcohol is that it reduces the ability to differentiate between good and bad ideas.

            And unless you are slipping alcohol into people without their knowledge or consent your entire point is meaningless. You acknowledge the requirement to drive before you drink. That's the point the dumb fucking decision is consciously made.

        • I’m going to assume you have zero personal faults

          Drink and driving is not a mistake or a personal fault. It's a conscious and truly FUCKING DUMB decision that should have significant consequences for you personally and no one else.

          Comparing it to diabetes is just stupid. No one killed anyone else by getting diabeties, unless they accidentally sat on them.

          I've heard of traffic 'accidents' where a diabetic went hypoglycemic, passed out, and drove into other cars, pedestrians, etc. For some reason the news always reports it as a 'medical event', but the point is, people are killed by diabetics due to their diabetes way too often. It is an apt analogy. An idiot decides to drink and drive an puts people at risk. An idiot with diabetes fails to control their blood sugar and decides to drive, putting people at risk.

          • Including a (then) sitting congressman: https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbn... [nbcnews.com]

          • people are killed by diabetics due to their diabetes way too often.

            I've heard of it once != way too often. Wake me when 11000 fatalities are caused yearly in the USA due to diabetics.

            Also diabetes is a fully manageable disease. One of my friends is heavily diabetic and his phone will ring with a warning long before he gets hypoglycemic. And yeah this has also happened while we were driving once, we pulled over, he injected himself and we kept going.

            Comparing it to driving while voluntary impaired by alcohol is just the dumbest fucking thing I've heard.

      • Re:Next time... (Score:5, Informative)

        by tlhIngan ( 30335 ) <slashdot.worf@net> on Tuesday March 24, 2026 @05:23AM (#66058214)

        Iâ(TM)m going to assume you have zero personal faults and do not require any form of medication strictly because of shitty life choices to be able to stand on such a pedestal. Otherwise, remind me why I should have sympathy for sugar junkies suffering from preventable diabetes when the insulin factory gets hacked. Call a fucking nutritionist.

        Except in general, you don't get interlock systems forced on you for your first mistake. Interlocks are generally the last resort.

        The first DUI is usually a fine, maybe some light jail time (a couple of weeks) if it's bad. The second time is a much larger fine and more jail time

        The third time is usually when you either get your driving privileges taken away or you get required to install an interlock (at your expense - it's not cheap to install, and the monthly fees and activities you have to do to maintain it certainly aren't easy).

        Most drivers stop at 1. Which can be a simple mistake and most people learn from it and never do it again. Get caught a second time and it's usually a wake up call to start cleaning up your life. The third time generally means it's time for forceful intervention.

        So if you're forced to get an interlock on your car, basically you've failed multiple times at trying to fix your life and you got lucky the judge has sympathy for you. For they could easily just toss you in jail for a good long while as well.

        You don't get the interlock for a mistake. Some jurisdictions require a pattern of DUIs before they'd force it on you so it's not even your 3rd time, it's far more times. It also means you are also giving permission to be pulled over randomly for a sobriety check - a cop passing has the right to purposefully stop you to do this.

        If you have an interlock, it means you've failed to try to fix your alcoholism yourself and if the interlock makes your life difficult or inconvenient, well, you could be forced to catch the bus everywhere instead.

        • Yeah but still fuck all the companies that make these things.
          I've never had one and don't drink and drive but they're the same as the scammy prison phone companies and stuff.
          "You deserve it" isn't some excuse to enrich a "private public partnership"

          • by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

            Yeah but still fuck all the companies that make these things.
            I've never had one and don't drink and drive but they're the same as the scammy prison phone companies and stuff.
            "You deserve it" isn't some excuse to enrich a "private public partnership"

            Well, you don't HAVE to get an interlock installed. The judge can easily just say you're not allowed to drive at all as the alternative.

            It's an option to being forced to use Uber/Lyft or public transit.

            I mean, sometimes the alternative is preferable - maybe you o

        • by MrNaz ( 730548 )

          Sure, in this case we can say "fuck you" to drunk drivers and the don't deserve sympathy, but this everything must be cloud connected trend is going to fuck us all eventually.

          The problem is that the above sentence requires a person to be able to hold two thoughts in their head at the same time, which appears to be above almost everyone commenting in this thread.

        • And, yet... there are stories about false-positives (including diabetic ketoacidosis, breath mints causing readings, regular prescriptions can cause it, too).

          And, I'm sure there's some areas that don't exactly follow the third-strike rule, and now that cars are so much more computerized, it's tons easier to install the lock-out devices (if not have them already built-in).

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by TurboStar ( 712836 )

        I have many faults. None of them involve altering my mental state and operating heavy machinery in a way that puts OTHER people at risk.

        • I have many faults. None of them involve altering my mental state and operating heavy machinery in a way that puts OTHER people at risk.

          Your mental state varies naturally during the day. Ever drive tired? That's as dangerous as driving drunk.

      • Otherwise, remind me why I should have sympathy for sugar junkies suffering from preventable diabetes when the insulin factory gets hacked. Call a fucking nutritionist.

        How many "sugar junkies" are plowing into innocent people on the roads?

    • Re: Next time... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by getuid() ( 1305889 ) on Tuesday March 24, 2026 @03:51AM (#66058122)

      Are we supposed to have sympathy for these sociopaths?

      This isn't the point.

      The point is that a fwir justice system should deliver the punishment exactly as established, not give off "I altered the deal, pray I don't alter it any further".

      The original deal was: you don't drink, you get to drive your car. Not "maybe", not "if nothing comes im between."

      If you think that's too soft on crime, we can also discuss "you never get to drive a car again".

      In any case stick to the f-ing deal. Being a criminal doesn't make you vogelfrei.

      • Your analogy is shit. A cyberattack isn't "altering the deal", it's an error. If you rent a van and a third party vandalizes it to the point it won't function, nobody altered the rental agreement. Shit happens, and I'm sure Intoxalock has stuff like this in their contract because nobody can guarantee perfect cybersecurity.

        • If you rent a van and a third party vandalizes it to the point it won't function, nobody altered the rental agreement. Shit happens [...]

          So... does this mean that if "shit happens" while you're in possession of a rental van you're off scott free, not responsible?

          Or that if "shit happens" after you've signed the rental contract and paid, but before pickup, it's tough titties "no van and no money for you"?

          Did you ever rent a van?

          You put your monkey in a bank, and the bank gets robbed - shit happens, your money is gone?

          Have you ever been to a bank?

          No, "shit" doesn't 'happen" when you earn money making yourself responsible for 150.000 people bei

    • Anyway [knowyourmeme.com]

    • Re:Next time... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by serafean ( 4896143 ) on Tuesday March 24, 2026 @05:22AM (#66058210)

      You do realize these devices are slowly on their way to become mandatory in all cars?

      They're coming for you next...

      • You do realize these devices are slowly on their way to become mandatory in all cars?

        They are not even remotely. Please stick to the moon landings being faked when forming your conspiracy theories.

    • Re: (Score:1, Flamebait)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      You are missing the point of the story. Entirely. It is not about drunk driving.

      • Re: (Score:1, Interesting)

        by TurboStar ( 712836 )

        The headline is "Cyberattack on a Car Breathalyzer Firm Leaves Drivers Stuck" and then "Intoxalock hasn't explained what sort of cyberattack it's facing". So if the story has no details about the cyberattack, and you say it's not about inconvenienced drunk drivers, what's the story about? I mean, if you want to be a mysterious cunt smugly telling other people they are stupid without explaining why, that's fine with me, but you should expect to get called out on that shit.

    • by Sloppy ( 14984 )

      The story here has nothing to do with sympathy; it's about incompetence.

      "You used a n^2 query on a billions-of-records database?!"

      "Well, yeah, but it's ok because the only people who use it are assholes."

      That the victims of the breathalyzer's incompetent implementation happen to be people I mistrust, doesn't make the breathalyzer's makers look any less incompetent. They had one job, and they failed.

    • You might have a better point if we had public transportation or bicycling infrastructure in this country. Instead we're a third-world banana republic courtesy of decades of right-wing extremism abandoning everything but motor vehicle subsidies.
    • "Don't drink and drive" doesn't help when the government is trying to get these (or ANY other type of device with remote-disable functionality) put in all cars.
      • And, being that we all want the infotainment systems and built-in computers and all that... it's easier than ever to build in a breathalyzer... just require a cop or someone to activate it with a USB thumbdrive, and it's on until the same thumbdrive is connected again... "that'll be two grand".

        I can't see anybody ever pranking their buddy with this!

    • by sjames ( 1099 )

      On the other hand, take notice. There's a bunch of ideas being kicked around out there to subject ALL drivers to an automatic intoxication screening, even life-long non-drinkers. Might be worth looking at what could go wrong.

  • Modern devices and machines appear to me like some hilarious Brazil-style cyberpunk joke-reality. Imagine an effing cyberattack bricking a lock on your car or engine-starter. LOL! Well, I guess it's not called "Internet of Trash" for no reason.

    • Cool story. Do you always make ignorant knee jerk reactions to a story without having a clue? These devices are not internet connected and don't require an internet connection to operate.

      What is going on here is that the service centres aren't able to renew the calibration of the devices - that requires an internet connection periodically - one from the tool used for calibration. The devices are offline devices that are locking out when the calibration period expires (the calibration needs to be done every

      • by tragedy ( 27079 )

        What is going on here is that the service centres aren't able to renew the calibration of the devices - that requires an internet connection periodically - one from the tool used for calibration. The devices are offline devices that are locking out when the calibration period expires (the calibration needs to be done every 30 days)

        That sounds very similar to "...internet connected and ... require an internet connection to operate."

  • an Iowa company called Intoxalock ...

    Spend more time/money on your system security and infrastructure and less on a clever name and marketing. /s

  • Drink-driving. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ledow ( 319597 ) on Tuesday March 24, 2026 @04:37AM (#66058158) Homepage

    Why does America have 150,000 drivers who can't be trusted to not drink and drive?

    And why are they allowed a licence?

    • by SeaFox ( 739806 )

      And why are they allowed a licence?

      Wouldn't a breathalyzer lockout on a car's ignition be a better safety feature than taking away their license? I mean, it's not like you have to scan a valid license to operate a vehicle. Taking away theirs would likely just result in a bunch of unlicensed drunk drivers behind the wheel.

      • by Viol8 ( 599362 )

        True, but their cars plates would be registered and if they were spotted driving them it would be prison time.

        • by MrNaz ( 730548 )

          Because prison is not the answer to everything for fuck's sake.

          • by Viol8 ( 599362 )

            It fucking is if you kill someone because you're drunk so fuck you you hand wringing moron.

            • by MrNaz ( 730548 )

              Me: Prison is not the answer to everything.
              You: It is because (insert specific scenario).

              Let me introduce you to the word "everything" and what it means.

              This whole article is about how to STOP people from driving while drunk. I'm not hand wringing, I just don't think that prison is the only solution here.

              • by Viol8 ( 599362 )

                If they'd been banned from driving for DUI yet go out and drive again anyway then clearly they're beyond reasoned discussion. However a few months in a cell would probably focus their minds quite well. We're talking adults here who are responsible for their actions, not young children.

                • Are these the same responsible adults who leave their kids at home so they can make a drug run, or lie on their SNAP application?
                  Me and mom went to get Thanksgiving turkey and stuff one year (a while back), and were waiting for a cab, and there was a little girl who's mom apparently took off without her (we stayed with her until the manager got there)... those responsible adults?
                  Or, the responsible adults who leave their $900 cell phone on the car's roof, then drive off (causing the screen to break, and the

                  • by Viol8 ( 599362 )

                    Not sure what your point is. Do you think because there are plenty examples of idiots doing dangerous things none of these idiots should be punished?

            • How many idiots out there today have guns who shouldn't be allowed to even have or be around a pocket knife?

              While doing ten years in prison for drunk driving is just ridiculous, if you plow down a college frat party (let's not get into why the party was in the street), that's vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, which if I remember right, is probably longer than ten years in prison.

              And, in response to your post below Viol8... banned from driving doesn't mean jack.
              I've never had my license once, and I c

      • Sadly, it's just for show. True, if the person isn't drunk at the time they can start their car. But if they are buzzed they can still have their non-drunk friend blow into it for them. So they don't really prevent anything (unless they're internet connected and get hacked...)

        • by Sique ( 173459 )
          This would actually be an improvement, as now, a car is occupied by two people instead of one, reducing overall traffic.
          • Even better, when the drunk driver crashes there's chance he'll kill the passenger, too, thereby eliminating more humans, reducing the human effects of climate change.

      • Wouldn't a breathalyzer lockout on a car's ignition be a better safety feature than taking away their license? I mean, it's not like you have to scan a valid license to operate a vehicle. Taking away theirs would likely just result in a bunch of unlicensed drunk drivers behind the wheel.

        People just bring their kids along to blow into the tube.

    • I think the question is not why does America have that, but rather why do you think that other countries don't. America is only slightly worse than average when it comes to DUI. In other countries I genuinely question whether they are being investigated correctly. E.g. in Australia I used to pass random breath test checkpoints maybe every 3 weeks. In Europe I've been tested twice in the past decade.

      • by ledow ( 319597 )

        https://www.sandlawnd.com/dui-... [sandlawnd.com]

        (I don't understand the odd wording at the start of this quoted paragraph because it sounds like it's being set up for a contradiction when it's not)

        "While the United States may seem like we have high numbers for DUI accidents every year, we actually are the third worst country when it comes to drunk drivingâ"which obviously isnâ(TM)t great. In 2015, South Africa was ranked number one as the worst country when it comes to drunk driving. With 58% of their fatal acci

        • It depends on how you cut the statistics. The problem is there is very little consistency between not just how data is gathered, but also how laws are passed. For example: That very article you quote shows the number of fatal alcohol related deaths to be around 10k / yr. That article quotes 31% DUI related fatalities, but statistics show there's 41k deaths a year due to motor vehicles. Elsewhere the stats list that 31% is the number of fatal accidents that include *any* level of alcohol, not just above 0.08

          • It depends on how you cut the statistics. The problem is there is very little consistency between not just how data is gathered, but also how laws are passed. For example: That very article you quote shows the number of fatal alcohol related deaths to be around 10k / yr. That article quotes 31% DUI related fatalities, but statistics show there's 41k deaths a year due to motor vehicles. Elsewhere the stats list that 31% is the number of fatal accidents that include *any* level of alcohol, not just above 0.08. Then how do you compare that to Germany where they only consider incidents above 0.05 (different limit, different recording method).

            The entire statistic analysis and collection for this could be a masters thesis topic. Simply comparing numbers directly doesn't work.

            I did a LOT of research on the USA data reporting ~20 years ago.
            Throughout the 80s/90s/00s, USA drunk driving stats were drastically overreported due to poor standards across jurisdictions, a sloppy verbal technicality, and pre-digitized-OCR searching/indexing. During that era, the technical definition used for creating the national aggregate data, was actually "alcohol-involved" fatalities. Basically, if ANY of the people involved in a traffic incident were found to have alcohol, the incident was classifie

      • calling for checkpoints? what?

    • by gweihir ( 88907 )

      And why are they allowed a licence?

      They are allowed a license because US public transportation is total crap. And because it is better for society to have these people be productive, even if they need this guardrail.

      But that is not actually what the story is about. The story is about doing infrastructure on the stupid.

      • They can be just as productive WITH SOMEONE ELSE DRIVING THEM. It will just be less convenient and perhaps embarrassing (not that not driving is inconvenient and embarrassing, but people that drive everywhere often feel it is). Countless people that CAN'T drive manage.
    • because we have no public transit and having people who can't drive... in america... is a giant social risk because they'll drive illegally or turn to crime for work.

    • So multiple police have been caught pulling over sober drivers and charging them. When you get charged with drunk driving you are basically guilty until proven innocent. You lose your license until the legal process is over and that can take months. Naturally this means there are cases of people please bargaining because they need to get their license so they can start moving around again because our entire transportation system is built around private automobile ownership.

      We also have a recent case of
    • Because otherwise we'd have to put them in prison or on welfare. We messed ourselves up to the point where many of us *NEED* a car to get to work. Many areas the roads are designed so it's even unsafe to be on a bicycle, 'specially with so many depressed assholes driving to work still drunk from the night before.
      • That's some ridiculous circular logic. If we let fewer unsafe drivers drive, not driving will be safer. And even people that truly need a car to get to work don't need a car with only one person in it; they can simply get into a vehicle that SOMEONE ELSE IS DRIVING.
    • Why does America have 150,000 drivers who can't be trusted to not drink and drive?

      America has millions, but only 150k currently under orders. Let me know which country has solved the drunk driving problem. America could then model its programs after that country's programs to achieve higher compliance. Humans are the same everywhere.

      And why are they allowed a licence?

      Because revoking a license essentially revokes a person's ability to support themselves. Do you want to dump 150k onto the welfare roles in one shot? How about the year over year count of people getting convicted of DWI/DUI? Do you REALLY want that many peopl

  • Why would such a device need a connection to anything?
    Surely it can take the breath sample locally, analyse it, and then either start the car or refuse to do so entirely locally. This is yet another case of things being tied to a cloud service for absolutely no reason, and becoming useless when that service fails.

    • I believe that this is the nub of the problem here, in the UK it is fairly common for insurance companies to fit trackers that report on the driver's behaviour in return for substantial discounts on their premiums and I can also see governments applying this sort of technology to drivers who have multiple speeding convictions.

      The total reliance on a service in the cloud will inevitably brick the whole vehicle should that service become unavailable.

      • by Sique ( 173459 )
        But in the case of the UK, it's a simple logging device. It does not hamper the operation of the car it is connected to. If it fails, the insurance company has no data. But the driver can still start the car.
    • My friend had one of these and it does all kinds of other things like taking photos of the driver performing the test. I can't remember everything he listed. Yes, someone fucked up the service, but this kind of device is supposed to failsafe with a disabled vehicle. It's not the same as a a car that gets over the air updates, which would failsafe with your vehicle continuing to run on old firmware. I'm pretty sure the over the air "periodic calibrations" they are talking about is the failsafe for tampering

      • Oh, that would explain it. I was wondering why it would need periodic "calibration" because my only experience with such a thing was that a fellow student back when I was in college in the mid '90s had one, and it certainly wasn't internet connected. And I believe he had a friend (not me) blow into it at least once.

    • The point of having it phone home is that otherwise you could trivially bypass it. At some point it has to snitch or it's meaningless.

    • by Himmy32 ( 650060 )
      Taking the measurements locally is logical. The calibration check in to a cloud service also makes sense since these sensors aren't "for" the people using them but for the protection of the public. So normal concerns like loss of privacy pale in comparison to the risk of people already established to be untrustworthy attempting to disable or interfere with the interlock and has the upsides of not having to check in as at a brick and mortar as often for the people trying to get their life back together.
    • by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Tuesday March 24, 2026 @11:24AM (#66058816)

      Why would such a device need a connection to anything?
      Surely it can take the breath sample locally, analyse it, and then either start the car or refuse to do so entirely locally. This is yet another case of things being tied to a cloud service for absolutely no reason, and becoming useless when that service fails.

      Everything is done locally. This isn't a cloud issue. The devices do not need a cloud connection to operate. The people who are locked out are those who have their calibration due. It's the Service Centres that do the calibration who are unable to recalibrate the devices (which does require a connection to back home) and that results in a device that gets locked out when the calibration expires.

      Everything is completely local for the end user. The only people affected are those who had their calibration fall due in the couple of day period where the service centres were unable to calibrate them.

      TFS and TFA is useless at explaining this.

    • it's called capitalism and it's why we cannot trust our own legal system, because it understands absolutely nothing and is run entirely by reactionaries who put the force of law behind shit as stupid as requiring an internet connection to start a car.

      They just put their heads down and do their impossible jobs, just like the rest of us, and in so doing, they break everything, and no, endless compromise with obvious evil is not a good thing, nor a "progress" thing, nor an inevitable thing. It's just an incom

  • I intentionally blew the interview because I could see their attack surfaces were porous and their "hybrid cloud" architecture was weak at best. The biggest problem, as I saw it, was that their then-current posture was what management had mandated and they had no interest in making their network and security architecture "better". Also, they were lobbying for "stronger" anti-drunk-driving laws so that they could "get more business", if you know what I mean. All told, I'd rate the company as a C to C- but

  • Not a surprise, seeing their lack of attention attention to detail.
    Right now, on their home page under "We Make Getting Back on the Road Simple"
    there's 4 testimonials, all with placeholder text.

    I'd bet their automated billing for $75/mo is running just fine.
    Parasites.

  • OH NO, now they'll just have to put repeat offenders who clearly didn't learn their lesson back in jail where they belong. So tragic.
  • Cyber technology not fit for purpose. An unstable spaghetti mess built on top of another unstable spaghetti mess.
  • by PPH ( 736903 )

    ... do they have calibration standard drunks, tracable to NIST?
    And are they hiring?

  • > "Our vehicles are giant paperweights right now through no fault of ours," one wrote on Reddit.

    No fault? None at all? That seems... counter-intuitive.

    I get it that the technology failed spectacularly, and that this is a serious problem for which people need to be held to account, but my car is working just fine.

  • by WoodburyMan ( 1288090 ) on Tuesday March 24, 2026 @02:28PM (#66059348)

    For those of you that come in here saying "Oh well these drunks get what they deserve" and that these devices are only for repeat offenders, think again. Every state is slowly selling out to these shitty device manufacturers to make money.

    In the state of Connecticut, even just being arrested/accused of a DUI, the DMV processes it and requires you to have a IID device like Intoxalock for 6mo to 12mo even on first offense. (2 and 3 years or parament for further offenses). No if ands or buts and no way to plead your case, just being arrested for it not even convicted of it. All automatic without due process. Automatic interlock, no other conditions like accident, or other charges needed, and treated like a 2nd class citizen for even the smallest mistake.

    You receive a separate Criminal / Motor Vehicle case in the judicial system where normal court procedure occur, and you case can be pleaded, and/or reduced, deferment programs, etc if it's your first offense. So you can effectively have the criminal case dismissed and found not guilty, but the DMV will still require one of these interlock devices.

    • The beauty of the state licensing regime, my friend, is that they may impose whatever restrictions they desire, without pesky things like due process or consideration getting in the way. If the DMV says you have to wear a pink hat on Tuesdays, well well motherfucker, guess who gonna wear a pink hat if they wanna drive on Tuesday? You do not have a right to drive a motor vehicle. You may be given permission to do so at the discretion of some guy who probably has way too much private time with impressionable
  • by DMFNR ( 1986182 ) on Tuesday March 24, 2026 @11:10PM (#66060132)
    Most states require a camera and GPS to be installed along with the interlock device these days. At the calibration this data is pulled off the device and uploaded to the companies servers along with calibrating the actual device. The devices really are shitty enough that the monthly calibration is necessary. I've worked in shops that serviced them where devices would need to be replaced almost every calibration during the cold months.

    I have no sympathy for people who have to suffer with these devices, they are lucky they are still being allow driving privileges at all. Intoxalock is honestly one of the best manufacturers of the devices though, and they make life miserable for everyone including the shops that service them. I have no idea why the owners signed a contract with them, they little bit of money we made on install and removal was easily eaten up by the constant calibration headaches.

    Dirty secret of these devices is they can easily be bypassed by jumping a pin on the starter relay. The GPS will detect the anomaly and go in to a service lock out, but you'll be able to start the car with the jumper. I wouldn't do this if I was on probation, but if some bullshit like this bricked my car and I had to get to work I'd do it.
  • People who have interlocks on their cars couldn't start them and drive? Good. More of this please and thank you.

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