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RIM Heeds Senators' Call to Drop DUI-Avoiding Apps

Mar 23, 2011, 3:12 PM by Eric M. Zeman

On March 22, four U.S. senators sent letters to Apple, Google and Research In Motion requesting that the companies remove applications from their respective app stores that help drivers avoid sobriety check-points. Democratic senators Harry Reid, Chuck Schumer, Frank Lautenberg and Tom Udall contributed to the letter, which said, in part, "Giving drunk drivers a free tool to evade checkpoints, putting innocent families and children at risk, is a matter of public concern." RIM has complied, and said that the offending applications will be removed from its BlackBerry App World by the end of the day. In a statement published today, New York's Democratic senator, Charles E. Schumer, said, "RIM's decision to remove these apps from their online store proves that when it comes to drunk driving, there should not be an app for that." Apple and Google have yet to respond to the senators' request.

Wall Street Journal »

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Comments

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This forum is closed.

mycool

Mar 23, 2011, 6:15 PM

Hmm?

While I'm not for people to drunk drive, it's a slippery slope to start removing apps because they could potentially cause issues.

What about Trapster? It's designed to alert people who enjoy speeding (which puts others in danger) avoid speed traps.

D102982

Comparing speeding to drunk driving is apples to oranges. Drunk Driving kills thousands of people a year.

If someone is drunk driving and thinks the only punishment is getting arrested is missing the point. Your choice to save a little $ puts ever...
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Jayshmay

Well heck, you can buy radar detectors in stores, senators haven't prevented those from being on the market.

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edzero

I dont think the app is even made for drunk drivers. I mean sure, theyre the ones who would really try to avoid checkpoints but can you really tell the phone companys to stop selling an app because if it falls in the wrong hands it can be a problem. ...
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Troll-Bait

I really don't think these requests have anything to do with drunk driving, but are rather a cover for increased income through speeders.

Trapster IS one of the apps they are trying to get removed.

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T Bone

Cops who run speed traps approve of the various tools people come up with to find speed traps, because when people know where the speed traps are, they drive more slowly and safely around the traps, which is the entire point of a speed trap.

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