Uber Breathalyser- Drive Home Safely

Drunk driving is one of the major causes of mishaps and accidents on the road. In a first of its kind in India, Mumbai Police has partnered with Uber, App-based cab aggregator, to install breathalysers at the city's bars and pubs to help people reach home safely.

Uber Breathalyser is a kiosk that estimates alcohol content in a person's blood from a breath sample. Consequently, the device flashes a red light if it's over the legal limit, and a green light, if it's safe for the person to drive. In case the reading is over the limit, a message is displayed on the screen that helps the person request an Uber home, instead of driving and flash a promo code offering a discounted ride.

Shailesh Sawlani, General Manager, Uber Mumbai, said in a statement, “Through this campaign, we aim to build awareness against drunk-driving and give people a convenient and reliable ride back home. We hope to work with the Mumbai traffic police to install these devices across all bars and pubs in the city,"

The first kiosk has already been introduced in Nook, a nightclub in Kurla's Phoenix Marketcity. Uber, which was launched in 2009 has already made its footprints in 26 cities of India, is committed to "invest heavily" in safety measures for its riders.

In the recent times, Mumbai Police was facing a deficit of breath analyzers. A court hearing revealed that it had only 119 of Breathalyzers against the expected figure of 327. In February, the Bombay High Court had ordered the police to procure breath analyzers within four months.

In 2015, Uber had tied up with Breathometer, a US company that made the world's first smartphone breathalyzers to tackle drunk driving. It is a device that lets users measure their blood alcohol content using their iOS and Android smartphone. Breathometer was founded in September 2012 by Charles Michael Yim, who is the company’s current CEO.