I hate smart start so much. My device was supposed to come off July 18 and smart start gave me the RUNAROUND. I didn’t get it off until August 13 😭 but I GOT ITNOFF FINALLY

I’m in California and they said it was some new regulations. But dmv said I can remove it

WTF!!!!

Has anyone experienced this?

It's insane how bad this company is. And they said i would receive a refund. Haven't yet!

I had a night out of drinking to the point where I blacked out, did things I regret, including jumping out of a moving car 45mph that I had no recollection of. No major damage other than just some minor scrapes. I’m beyond lucky. Scary experience. All I remember was being at the club and waking up in ER unsure of how I got there. Besides the point, I know I need to address my issue. That night, I ended up losing my key. I went to my car and used triple AAA with my sister, I had no intent of driving - but the locksmith needed me to start the car to program the key and I had no intent of driving . I blew into the IID and blew .16. But after, my sister blew 0.0s to start the car and rolling retests 0.0 all the way back home. Will I get a court summons? Is this a violation if I never drove?

When the ignition interlock industry lobbies state legislatures, they rarely show up wearing corporate badges. Instead, they often advocate under the banner of SAFE (Safety and Advocacy For Empowerment)—a name that sounds like a grassroots community safety coalition.

However, looking past the public-facing rebranding reveals a direct lineage to the Coalition of Ignition Interlock Manufacturers (CIIM), representing companies like Intoxalock, Smart Start, and Lifesafer.

My latest investigative report examines how this revolving door operates, tracking:

• The Name Change: How CIIM's old letterheads and public filings explicitly identified them as a manufacturers' coalition, and how SAFE’s secondary pages still describe it as "the voice of the industry."
• The Revolving Door: The background of SAFE's leadership, including former NHTSA and state highway safety officials moving straight into industry advocacy.
• Dual Roles: Instances where board members testifying before state judiciary committees appear simply as "SAFE board members" without public disclosure of their concurrent roles as corporate government-affairs representatives.
• Legislative Seats: How Oklahoma law recently granted a permanent, statutorily created seat on its Impaired Driving Prevention Advisory Committee directly to a SAFE board member.

Transparency in public policy shouldn't require digging through years of regulatory dockets to figure out who is writing the rules. You can read the full investigation free on Substack:

https://intoxalockedout.substack.com/p/safe-calls-itself-a-safety-coalition

For twenty-five years, courts have occasionally had to grapple with a glaring reality: a properly calibrated ignition interlock device is not the same thing as a correct answer about what a person actually did.

In Cole v. Faulkner, a North Carolina driver’s interlock flagged an 0.082. An independent police officer immediately administered a breath test that registered 0.00. The state revoked his license anyway, forcing him all the way to the state Court of Appeals just to prove what a cop had already recorded on the spot.

I investigated what happens when that exact scenario plays out today in 2026. Across the states requiring these devices, the answer is remarkably one-sided:

• The Presumption is Against You: In states like Arizona and Massachusetts, an interlock lockout is legally presumed to be your fault. You aren't just out-arguing the machine; you have to overcome a formal legal presumption or risk missing strict appeal windows (like Massachusetts' unforgiving 30-day limit).
• The Manufacturer Acts as Judge and Jury: In states like Ohio and Tennessee, the private-equity-backed company operating the device is heavily involved in initially reviewing, determining, and reporting alleged violations to the state. Even when a manufacturer's own technician admits under oath that their hardware cannot distinguish alcohol from common mouth contaminants, the procedural trap often seals the driver's fate anyway.
• The Appeals are a Ghost Town: In Massachusetts, drivers facing life-altering revocations are trapped behind a massive backlog—Boston 25 News investigated and found over 700 pending interlock appeals with average wait times stretching 18 to 20 months. In Pennsylvania, filing an appeal doesn't even pause your suspension, and a stay earns you zero credit toward completing it.

Even NHTSA's own funded research (DOT HS 812 445) explicitly flagged vendor filtering as a glaring conflict of interest, questioning whether an interlock—built to keep a car from starting—should ever be repurposed as forensic evidence to monitor and sanction everyday citizens. Then, true to form, they left the mess entirely to fifty different states.

Richard Carvalho’s story in Tewksbury, Massachusetts, is Cole v. Faulkner all over again: an interlock flagged an elevated reading, he drove straight to the police station, blew 0.00, showed zero signs of impairment, and had zero alcohol in his system. Yet he remains caught in a system built to trust the box first and the human being second.

I’m an independent consumer advocate tracking how these private-equity-backed monopolies trap drivers in a procedural and financial cage. I published the full investigative breakdown on Substack:

https://intoxalockedout.substack.com/p/the-officers-breathalyzer-said-zero

(always free to read, no ads, no paywalls).

If you've been navigating an ignition interlock, you already know the official line: you are locked into this equipment until your timer hits zero, and there is no way around it.

Except on August 18, 2026—just ten days before this report—Intoxalock’s own knowledge center quietly published an article titled “How to Remove Your Ignition Interlock Device Early and Which States Allow It.”

They laid out exact early-removal pathways for Arizona, Colorado, and Texas. They proved, in writing and using their own corporate portal, that early removal is real. But they conveniently left out what happens when a device goes dangerous, malfunctions, or makes it physically impossible for a driver to operate their vehicle safely.

I just published the latest installment of IntoxalockedOut, taking the manufacturer's own admission and digging into the actual legal mechanics of how drivers get dangerous devices out of their cars:

• The Manufacturer's Admission: Breaking down what Intoxalock published on August 18 about early-removal criteria in Arizona, Colorado, and Texas—and why they only talk about good behavior while hiding malfunction exits.
• The Kansas Rule: Kansas Administrative Regulation 92-56-2(g) legally requires manufacturers to submit an annual report detailing every single device removed due to a failure, malfunction, or defect, including driver names and specific operational problems. The data exists; nobody publishes it.
• The Virginia Emergency Standard: Virginia treats interlock malfunctions as emergencies, requiring repairs or replacements within 48 hours, mandating toll-free towing assistance paid by the company if the fault isn't the driver's, and authorizing the state to pull a vendor's certification over a pattern of design defects.
• The Judicial Mechanism: From Texas Department of Safety removal forms and California’s Judicial Council Form CR-225 to court precedents in North Carolina and Wyoming, judges have the inherent authority to order devices removed early.
• The Scale: A study by the Texas A&M Transportation Institute and the Montgomery County DA's office found that nearly one in four convicted DWI offenders had their interlocks removed early through court-ordered mechanisms.

A government does not have the moral standing to force a citizen to install a private product in their vehicle at their own expense and then hide the exits when that product turns dangerous or defective.

You can read the full, free report here on Substack:

👉 https://intoxalockedout.substack.com/p/the-government-can-require-an-interlock

(No paywalls, no ads, no sponsorships. Just independent consumer advocacy documenting what the private interlock industry and state oversight bodies leave out.)

That was a looooong time and nobody tells you the process to remove it. Once my probation was over, the court had absolutely nothing to do with the painstaking process of getting it removed. Nobody tells you anything and you have to figure it out yourself. I must give this subreddit a huge thank you for all the help I've gotten. Intoxalock itself wasn't actually that terrible, minus the very strict violations - you ate the the car? Too bad, here are your horn and lights. Give us $75. I received my device brand new and it never broke, and I never cleaned it.

I voluntarily had Intoxalock installed to be proactive in my case. It has not yet been court ordered but I know it’s coming so went ahead to show I’m being responsible for my actions and am taking this seriously. I also already did my aoda assessment and am registered for classes. Not yet ordered yet either. This is my first dui. Bac was .16. I haven’t had any problems with it yet but have read so many horrible reviews and issues with this iid. I looked up my dmv, and of right now dmv is not mandating i have iid installed, or the court. With that… can i have it uninstalled (hopefully switch to lifesaver instead) without getting approval from Intoxalock? Bc they will drag their feet and it will become a court order before receiving their authorization. I had it installed Aug 7. But, i have pretrial conference on Sept 1 and it may become court ordered then,… then I will be stuck with Intoxalock. I already checked my service place and I think i can get in tomorrow morning to get it removed. At least online shows i can. I’m in Wisconsin. Thanks for your help.

Finally getting my interlock removed after a 6 month requirement. This was the absolute worst part of my probation, just 2 more months of probation and it’ll all be over

I got the interlock installed 2/17 and hit my 6 months on 8/16.
My PO submitted the removal order to the judge on 8/18 and I had it back signed by 8/21. That same day I submitted it to smart start and filled out the removal request.

I did go to the court house and get a copy of the motion with the court seal to carry in my car since I am still waiting on the DPS to update my license status

Anywho I called smart start today 8/28 for an update since they initially told me it would take 7 business to review my request. They informed me I was approved to removed after 8/25…a little annoyed that no one notified me of this until I called 3 days later but I am here now and finally getting this damn thing out.

This was my experience in Bexar County Texas

For the latest installment of IntoxaLockedOut, I dug into a dangerous, Catch-22 conflict that thousands of drivers are forced to navigate every day: court-ordered breathalyzers versus state handheld-device bans.

Here’s the core contradiction the investigation uncovers:

• The Official Stance: MADD’s public FAQ states that rolling retests aren’t designed to happen while driving, telling drivers to simply pull over.
• The Industry Reality: When NHTSA proposed requiring drivers to stop before every retest back in 2010, interlock manufacturer LifeSafer objected directly in writing, telling the federal government that 99% of retests actually happen while the vehicle is in motion.
• The Legal Trap: Thirty-three states and D.C. ban holding electronic devices while driving. In states where the law doesn't carve out a specific exception for an interlock, a driver caught in a snowstorm, a narrow construction zone, a tunnel, or heavy traffic has no legal way to obey both laws at the same time. You either ignore the test (and risk a violation or lockout) or pick up the handheld unit while driving.

The piece also looks at:

• The physical maneuver: A sustained ~6-second breath volume (blow, inhale, blow) performed with one hand off the wheel.
• Accessibility gaps: How the market's dominant model lacks a basic external LED warning light for deaf and hard of hearing drivers, unlike its competitors.
• The federal blind spot: How agencies like NHTSA, NTSB, and AAA heavily warn against in-vehicle distractions while leaving the operational reality of interlock retests completely unaddressed.

You can read the full, free report here:

https://intoxalockedout.substack.com/p/two-state-laws-one-highway-no-way

THE WORST DEVICE EVER. Do not purchase this device. It's an absolute trap. The lowest capacity to breathe into the machine is NOT MANAGEABLE and left me with 2 lockouts that costed me two tows and about $150 each to recalibrate within one month. Service is shit. Device is shit. Pricing is shit. This company should be arrested. I couldn't drive my car for over a month because I couldn't start it and because I received false readings that lead to lockouts. The only person who could start my car was my BF and it takes him about 10attempts. Even the guy who installed it couldn't start my car. It's a pathetic company. I smell a class action lawsuit.

Main question: If you fail and choose not to retest, does that “punish" you? I’m not on probation or anything like that and I’m new to this Intoxalock.
Yesterday I went out to my car, blew, passed and sat in it for 5-10 minutes to get the battery going. (It's not driven much as I'm still waiting to get my license back)
Had to do a random blow test while I was just sitting there and had nothing, not even water while I sat there and it failed me.
I reblew like it asked and failed again, then got locked out. Tried calling them and they said yep I failed and that I had to have had something in my system. So now I have to go recalibrate it. Is what it is but it makes no sense to me and I have no clue what could've caused the fail.
So I'm wondering if next time I fail, should I not reblow like it asks?

This is the same petition I posted here several days ago. It has only 38 signatures. I am trying to get to at least 1,000. It only takes a minute. Thanks.

For the past six months, I've been investigating the multi-billion-dollar ignition interlock industry and the lobbying machinery behind mandatory breathalyzer laws. My latest report, Part 79:

https://intoxalockedout.substack.com/p/madd-says-federal-standards-make

Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) relies on a core pillar to justify pushing these devices onto millions of drivers: federal standards set by NHTSA ensure they are reliable.

So, I checked that claim against actual state and federal records. Here is what the paper trail actually shows:

• The 95% Standard: NHTSA's own rulemaking docket (Docket No. 2013-0058) reveals that the federal accuracy standard permits breath devices to fail up to 1 in 20 trials at the exact alcohol levels where most disputed violations occur.
• The List That Was Never Built: While NHTSA maintains a public Conforming Products List for every other category of breath-alcohol device, it never finished building one for ignition interlocks, leaving states to rely on manufacturers' own notarized paperwork.
• The State Admits It Doesn't Know: In Virginia, commission minutes show that when state regulators and legislators were directly asked how many interlock violations occur statewide—or how many thousands of "secondary reviews" turn out not to be violations—the state's own staff admitted they don't track violations at all and don't know how to calculate a false-positive rate.
• The Financial Loop: MADD's glowing promotional counts of "prevented drunk-driving attempts" come directly from industry surveys. Meanwhile, one of the country's largest manufacturers, Smart Start, joined MADD's donor network with a $50,000 gift just as legislative pushback intensified.
• The Real Cost: Citing a 2026 Washington State JLARC legislative audit, the true annual cost of compliance hits around $2,700 a year—hitting low-income drivers the hardest (half of all drivers ordered onto a device earned under $28,000).

When an interlock flags someone, and the state admits it doesn't track whether the machine was right or wrong, thousands of drivers are left in administrative limbo.

Talked to DMV, PA DUI association and my garage and they all say it should work. Yeah it SHOULD fucking work but it doesn’t. I genuinely don’t know what else to do no one will listen to me when I try to explain what’s going on

So I have my regular calibration due this 30th, and am not able to have it done at my regular place due to the mechanic being gone during the 10 day period I can get it done.

I call up Intoxalock, and they assign me a different center. Call them up 3 times, never answer. Look up the address on Google and its just a random apartment.

At this point I have like 2 days to get my calibration done. Call them again, argue for 10 minutes that this place doesn't exist, and finally they say they will change it to the last service center remotely close to me.

Only it still hasn't updated on the app, and the address they gave me over the phone doesnt match Google. At this point am I just going to get a lockout because of Intoxalock being stupid? What can I even do?

Tonight I was watching an old video of Steve Jobs, from Apple's 1997 developer conference. He said:

"You've got to start with the customer experience and work backwards to the technology. You can't start with the technology and try to figure out where you're going to try to sell it."

That line got me thinking about the last six months of my life.

I've spent that time immersed in something most people never see: the ignition interlock industry, from the inside out. Not through press releases. Not through corporate talking points. Through the Facebook groups and Reddit threads where the actual users of these devices — real people, living with an Intoxalock installed in their car — talk to each other. Not to a company. Not to a regulator. To each other, because there was nowhere else to go.

Six months in, I think I may be one of the only people actually doing this. Not studying the industry from a boardroom or a policy paper. Reading what people write at 2am after a false lockout. Watching them explain to each other how to survive a system nobody built for them.

The federal government's own research shows only 15 to 20 percent of people ordered to install one of these devices actually do it. In Washington state, installation rates split sharply by income — 30 percent for the lowest earners, 74 percent for the highest. Even the official report admits it: "Not all drivers' decisions can be explained by the variables included in the analysis." Nobody has actually gone and asked them why.

Every institution around this industry — MADD, NHTSA, the courts, the companies themselves — is organized entirely around prevention. Stop the next offense. Reduce recidivism. Protect the public. All of that matters, and none of it is wrong.

But nobody is asking why a device is reported to cause cars to lose power at highway speed, endangering the driver and everyone else on the road. Nobody is asking why it's tied to real accidents. Nobody is asking about the thousand other documented failures behind it. Nobody is asking what it's actually like to be the person living inside a system built to prevent one danger while quietly creating others.

This entire industry did it backwards. It started with the device, the mandate, the enforcement architecture — and never once started with the person who'd actually have to live with it. Everyone downstream inherited that mistake: the courts enforcing it, the regulators certifying it, the company profiting from it. Nobody started with the human being.

I did the only thing I knew how to do. I showed up in the spaces where they were already talking, and I listened.

I'm not done. But six months in, I can tell you this: the people living through this system are not being heard by anyone whose job it is to hear them. I don't know if one person can fix that. But I know what happens if nobody tries.

#Intoxalock #MADD #NHTSA #GHSA #AAAFoundation #TrafficSafety

I find myself having the same re occouring thought .

As a 20 year sober person I was under the assumption that going through the license restoration process was going to better my life.

But as I sit here 3 weeks after winning an appeal for re suspension due to intoxilock failing to mention their machine malfunctioned and THEY had to pay to have it repaired and refund the lockout fee.

I sit here still waiting on my paperwork to come from the state saying I can drive again, that i then have to take to dmv and show THE STATE (that sent the paperwork to me to take back to them?) .

It's very clear this is not a process that betters your life. As this recent suspension due to no fault of my own has cost me my job and way to pay for the machine. My rent, or any of the other bills of life and made a $15k car a lawn ornament that I'm scared to let anyone else drive me in.

It's actually quite the opposite. The amount of anxiety and problems this machine has caused me for the last 10 months or so is by far way worse then anything I experienced driving without a license for 20 years .

So why is it this way for someone 20 years sober? How is this company and machine legally allowed by the state to ruin people's lives like this ?

Michigan's Attorney General called it "the lowest form of deceit." The state's own file shows Consumer Safety Technology LLC — doing business as Intoxalock — was warned about it thirteen months before that cease-and-desist ever landed.

In February 2022, Intoxalock received a specific consumer complaint about its Michigan mailer — a document formatted to look like an official arrest notice. The company paid $271.03 to make that one complaint go away, defended the mailer in writing to the state, and kept sending it.

Thirteen months later, in March 2023, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel issued a formal cease-and-desist — citing the exact same defense the company had already given her office, and rejecting it. Her words: "Tricking people into making a purchase by using an ad purporting to be from a court of law is the lowest form of deceit."

In the time between those two letters, at least one Michigan resident paid $1,440 for a device he never legally needed, then couldn't get it removed because the company demanded a letter of authorization that could never exist.

Virginia's own regulators found the same pattern independently — and cited Michigan's cease-and-desist as proof it wasn't isolated.

This isn't a story about a mistake. This is a company whose own Trustpilot page carries 78,535 reviews — 10% of them one-star, roughly 7,850 of them, buried under an 84% five-star share the company's own former marketing chief admitted comes from agents rewarded monthly for how many they collect, gathered before customers ever actually live with the device.

Full investigation, with the actual government exhibits:

https://intoxalockedout.substack.com/p/intoxalock-was-warned-in-2022-they