Let me give you a data point as well. I don't feel that it can harm me here - if you judge me by this I couldn't care less and everyone close to me knows about it. I'm not afraid of sharing it.

I'm in my early thirties but a couple (6? 8? I'd need to look it up) years ago I did what no one wants to confess doing: I was at a student party, roughly 20km away from home. I had a lot of beer (too much) and, after a (subjective) long chill-out time with a friend (no alcohol, just watching series, talking, etc.) I convinced myself that I was able to drive home.
To this date I claim that the intentions were good: The following morning a renowned speaker was talking at the place where I studied and I wanted to be there. But - first of all intentions don't matter in this case and then I don't trust myself with this reasoning. At that time I might've been convinced of this 'need' and probably I repeated it after that night so often that it just seems to be true. Is it? I cannot tell.

I drove home, in a car that I bought a month ago (used, but on a lease). Mind you, this is the German Autobahn, but I wasn't speeding. Probably in the range of 120-140 km/h. I crashed my car. To this day no one knows (and the only person that _could_ explain it is writing these lines) what happened, the best explanation after some serious steps back, mentally, is that I just fell asleep for a second. I touched the middle guard railing (if the dictionary provides me with the right word), reacted poorly (..) and crashed into the right one, two times. Came to a standstill. I was alone in the car, the (2-lane) road was empty at that hour (4am? 5am?). I was fine - and incredibly lucky.

A truck driver stopped and asked me if I was okay and repeatedly, to make sure that I actually make sense, if someone is still in the car. Then he called the police, as it is the law. They took the wrecked car, brought me into a police station, did a multitude of tests (reaction, pupils etc. pp) and took blood. I'm not sure if they took my driving license at that point already, but I think they did. Afterwards they sent me home (I took a bus with my last money).

I got a trial for this incident with the result that the judge said I did a mightily bad mistake but he saw now reason to claim that I did this intentional (it's a huge difference if you are (grossly) negligent or found to do something intentional/on purpose).

Result:

- I was alive, well, no one was harmed. Luck!

- I lost my driving license for 10 month. I needed to do prove my physical ability again to regain it afterwards. I didn't need to do (something that you get if you are a not a first time offender, have a bad record or cross over a line of blood alcohol) a psychological test to check if I'd ever be allowed to drive again. Do you have something similar over there?

- I lost my 'new' used car, so I had debts worth a couple thousand EUR for a car that was gone

- I was sentenced to a fine of 30 days, my income was set to be 50 EUR -> 1500 EUR (my real income at that time was 500 EUR/month, I don't get the numbers)

- My insurance refused to pay the (still not sure about the word) guarding rails. These innocent looking metal things are awfully expensive and added another couple of thousand EUR to my debt.

- I got some (4? 5?) points in our central register in Germany. You're allowed to have at max 18 points, but you get issues before (a forced 'reeducation'/driving course at 14 for example) before you lose your license. Points 'awarded' for stuff like this have a prolonged lifetime. Usually points are 'gone' after two years, unless you get new ones. These were set for 5 years, because of alcohol.

Needless to say, this was a hard (but maybe cheap - I just had to pay some money and no one was hurt) lesson. For the crappy idea of going home at night, drunk, after a party, I payed probably a sum that surpassed 5 digits, and I wasn't a victim. I _knew_ my mistake - and everyone around me as well. So - you're the idiot that realized it far too late..

Suffice to say: I won't repeat that. Funny enough I'm now in a country where this again seems to be more ~lenient~ or at least very common. I know, I'll never try it again.

The reason for this lengthy post: As you can certainly guess I have a strong feeling about this topic. Whatever you _think_ you can do after a couple of drinks doesn't matter. IF you crash (and the risk is higher than you think) you pay so much more. Even if you are drunk _and_ innocent, you lose. Don't do it! It's not worth the risk.

If you still think 'Hey, but I'm fine. I know how my body reacts.': The doctor that the police waked up to check me (just a minor embarrassment during the night, I'm still sorry for her as well though) wrote in her report that I showed no typical signs of alcohol abuse: Reaction time was okay, pupils reacted ok, I was calm (albeit shocked) and reasonable. If you think this is makes you able to drive, think again.

And - I love to drive. Still. And before I left Germany I used to drive fast, the last couple of years. I'd say I'm an experienced driver on our streets without speed limit. That doesn't help though.

Amen. And sorry for the long post..

(A disclaimer that I should've put into the post from the start: I downvoted the 'automatic cars' claim and upvoted the veto. Even with this experience I don't think that this is a solution. We could find a multitude of different things that you shouldn't handle carelessly, drunk or without care (and, you know, I could bring up an Amendment here, for one), but 'It can be used to cause harm, don't use it' is usually not a solution. Probably never is.)