Kevin Moore , Chief Executive Officer , said that for he and SOBRsafe ™ , child safety represents a chance to make a societal difference with breakthrough technology .
Originally formed by venture capital firm First Capital Ventures , and merged with a detection technology development company , SOBRsafe is at its core a technology and data platform for touchbased alcohol detection – and it is coming to school buses . “ We brought a lot of previously successful people together as the leadership at SOBRsafe ,” Moore said . “ And one of the key elements for that leadership is to make a difference with this company . We are all at the point in our lives where we want to leave a generational legacy – and child safety is an area where we can make a significant social impact .” Moore said that American school transportation lacks tools to fully prevent impaired driving , through no fault of the districts and schools themselves . With current capabilities and requirements , alcohol impairment can often go untracked at school bus operations – or tracked with very limited or random screening techniques . “ Every parent treasures their child ’ s safety ,” Moore said , “ so we asked ourselves , ‘ What if we had a solution that screens 100 percent of bus drivers before they can receive keys and operate a bus ?’”
SOBRcheck™ After a lengthy research and development period , SOBRsafe is launching SOBRcheck™ for access control , a patent-pending , proprietary device that provides touch-based identity verification and alcohol detection via a “ go / no go ” methodology . When a human ingests alcohol , one of the ways it leaves the body is via transdermal expiration – through the skin . The SOBRcheck™ device does not provide a Blood Alcohol Content ( BAC ) reading , instead detecting the presence of alcohol in Zero Tolerance situations – like a school bus operation . The system further functions as a driver / vehicle authenticator by beaming light onto a driver ’ s skin and creating a set of data points . Those data points then act as that driver ’ s unique identification . Moore said that this helps alleviate privacy concerns , as the device is not recording fingerprints . Furthermore , the information that the device collects is immediately transmitted to supervisors via a userfriendly app . This process , Moore said , allows transportation managers , operation managers , and other supervisors to make proactive decisions as opposed to reactive corrections . “ This is the sort of tool which will not only allow school transportation departments to keep children safe , but also provide parents with peace of mind about their child on the bus ,” Moore said . “ We see
preemptive alcohol detection as a critical need for school buses , and feel this device is a phenomenal way to fulfill that need . Systems like this can be essential to ensure that school buses are substance-free environments .”
A unique model Moore said that SOBRsafe ’ s intellectual property is currently focused on alcohol detection , but the company is exploring technology centered around detection of cannabis , opioids , and other illicit drugs – as driven by employer need and market demand . “ The key to SOBRsafe is that we are not out developing technologies that require years of testing before commercialization ,” Moore said . “ We are an integrator of technologies . So , in addition to our internal alcohol detection development , we are looking for other commercially-ready technologies that might work within our system architecture .” In addition to pursuing other substance detection solutions , Moore said that SOBRsafe is continuing to develop additional value-
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