Automobile Safety Improvement

1
Automobile Safety Improvement

• By Keyonna Barfield, Sam McMickle, Jay Patel,
  Andrew Codner, Wes Eberlin

2
The Invention

• The teams invention was a breathalyzer that is
  built into the car. With this invention we will
  be able to reduce the amount of drunk driving,
  which in turn will save lives.

3
History

• According to the National Highway Traffic Safety
  Administration, 17,013 people died in 2003 in
  alcohol-related collisions, representing 40
  percent of total traffic deaths in the United
  States.
• Over 500,000 people were injured in
  alcohol-related accidents in the US in 2003.

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What is a Breathalyzer?

• A breathalyzer is a tool that is used to measure
  the amount of alcohol in your system. Most cops
  use it to test the alcohol level of drivers they
  pull over for suspicion of drunk driving.
• The most common blood alcohol content (BAC)
  "legal limit" in the United States is 0.08.

5
Some brands of Breathalyzer

• Breathalyzer- is the most common brand of
  breathalyzers.
• Intoxilyzer
• Alcosensor
• Alcoscan
• BAC Datamaster

6
How the safety improvement works

• The safety improvement will be installed to a
  start up device in the vehicle located next to
  the wheel, the owner of the car or the person who
  is going to drive the car inserts the key into
  the ignition.
• Then an automated system will ask the driver to
  blow their breath into the device.

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How the safety improvement works

• If the driver passes the test then it will allow
  that driver to turn the key and turn on the
  engine.
• If not the vehicle will not allow the driver to
  start the car.

8
Setbacks

• The breathalyzer does not only identify the ethyl
  alcohol found in alcohol beverages, but also
  other substances similar in molecular structure.
• Over one hundred compounds can be found in the
  human breath at any one time and 70 to 80 percent
  of them contain methyl group structure and will
  be incorrectly detected as alcohol.
• If you have these molecules in you when you test
  your breath, then you will not be able to turn on
  your car.

9
Cost

• The cost of installing the device, when the car
  is being built, is about 120-160. This all
  depends on the model of the car and the quality
  of the start up device.
• Breathalyzers can be brought from a supplier
  already assembled and installed in the car
  through the assembly line as is most things are
  put into the car.
• Individual breathalyzers sold in stores were
  retailed for about forty to fifty dollars.

10
Value

• The non monetary value that our safety
  improvement provides to the customer is that they
  are safe in their car and that they are not
  endangering those around them.
• The monetary value is that you wont damage your
  car in a drunk driving accident if you had not
  had the safety improvement and that would cost
  you car repairs and possibly medical bills. The
  figure would probably be tens of thousands of
  dollars.

11
Techniques used for coming up with the invention

• Some techniques that the team used to help our
  creativity and innovation as we developed our
  concept was a worksheet handed out by the
  professor helping put on paper the details of he
  improvement.
• It brought up questions like what were the
  benefits and what were the downsides of it.
• We as a team decided in the beginning that we
  would make an safety improvement that not only
  would benefit the occupants of the vehicle but
  others on the outside of it as well.

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THE END