- 1 day ago
What happens when you drink and drive? Our reporter gets behind the wheel of a driving simulator to find out. Plus: Carl Benz, his wife Bertha and the Patent Motor Car, and how cycling helps a Sudanese refugee in Cairo.
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00:00Oh
00:05Okay, yeah, but we didn't run over them, so it's still fine
00:25Driving drunk can be absolutely deadly, but I'm going to try it
00:30Oh
00:31Everything in the name of science, of course
00:34To show you how quickly all of our driving gets worse while driving under the influence all this happens in
00:41a simulator
00:41Where we can track everything where I'm going where I'm looking and while we're at it
00:47We're also going to test my reflexes with tests that the police would also apply when they catch me driving
00:54like this
00:56And I can already say this never drive drunk. Just don't
01:05Okay
01:11The shifting knob looks a bit like a racing knob
01:20There's even a resistance when you steer
01:22To know how good of a driver I am or to have a comparison point for driving under the influence
01:28I need to take the driving test sober first
01:32And of course there's actually people around that know what they are talking about
01:36Dr. Benno Hartung is one of Germany's most reowned experts when it comes to the influence of drugs such as
01:42alcohol and cannabis on driving safety
01:46And Dr. Katharina Zuboe who just wrote her dissertation on alcohol and driving impairment on e-scooters
01:52Before I get to go for my first round we need to double check that I'm really sober
01:58Anything else would have been a surprise
02:000.0 I'm sober
02:01Good to go, the first challenge is driving in the countryside in a straight line
02:07All righty
02:08Okay, so if you'd like to start
02:11Oh, this feels wild
02:21It really feels like you're actually driving
02:26It's quite realistic
02:29So driving straight isn't too bad
02:31But when you're going like from left to right
02:35And back you can feel like a little bit of motion sickness
02:40And I don't know how that's gonna be when you're intoxicated
02:46Next I'll have to drive through a city environment
02:54So needless to say that the simulator takes a bit of getting used to
02:59Benno Hartung and Katharina Zuboe are also going to employ tactics that police would use if they think that I'd
03:05be driving under the influence
03:06So we'll also do a sober benchmarking for them
03:10Walking in a straight line writing numbers in my hand
03:15Five or an s
03:17Having my eyes follow a pen and climbing stairs on the spot
03:21These are for visual signs of impairment
03:24But Benno Hartung also makes me take cognitive tests like memory or reading colors out loud
03:30White, green, black, yellow, red, blue, red, yellow, blue, green, blue, red, yellow, green
03:39Oh my god
03:40So it's 38 seconds
03:42Yeah
03:43Okay
03:44This is your baseline time
03:46To get hammered we're going to switch to a nice and sunny spot
03:49So it's 2.30 and I'm ready for my first spirits mixery
03:53Cheers
03:59Ah yeah
04:01Second one doesn't taste as well
04:05To science
04:09I'm starting to feel a little bit tipsy
04:13Why is that? Like how is my body absorbing the alcohol?
04:18So the alcohol is ingested now and now the alcohol is being resorbed from your stomach into the blood
04:27And the faster the alcohol level increases the more you feel tipsy
04:33When is the peak?
04:35You can probably guess that the peak of your alcohol level will be maybe 20 or 30 minutes after your
04:44last sip
04:46Now I've had three whiskey cokes
04:53Me driving now would probably be illegal anywhere in the world
04:58No matter what the permit
05:00No matter what the permit limits are
05:02We'll check my alcohol level in a second
05:05Alcohol is probably the world's most well-known drug
05:08So well known that many don't see it as a drug like cannabis or cocaine
05:14Most of the time alcohol is first analyzed with a breathalyser and only if you fail that one
05:19The police will take a blood sample from you to measure the concentration in the blood
05:24Many european countries limits often fall between 0.2 and 0.8 per ml blood alcohol
05:30Sweden sits at 0.2
05:33Germany at 0.5 and the uk at 0.8
05:38Internationally some countries have a zero tolerance policy
05:42Brazil, united arab emirates or the czech republic to just name a few
05:47What are the factors that influence how much alcohol i'm like taking up when i'm drinking?
05:52It depends on your constitution on your body weight
05:55It depends on how much have you been eating in advance
05:58Especially how fatty was your meal
06:00It depends on the time that that you need to drink the amount of alcohol
06:06Because in the meantime you will eliminate alcohol
06:10And others have some pretty hefty fines when you exceed the limits
06:14In japan you can get imprisoned for two years and charged about 7 000 us dollars
06:19In signapore the fine can be up to 10 000 us dollars and you'll lose your license for at least
06:25two years
06:27But back to my drunk driving definitely feeling the alcohol here before i jump into the car
06:32I need to go through the numbers and memory
06:35Orange white green. I felt like I was almost as fast. Oh, I was faster
06:45And after that memory
06:48How are you feeling at the moment?
06:51Like on a night out with some good friends
06:55Yeah, where I perform absolutely rubbish
07:02It's three pairs that's half half of what I did originally and of course then there is the breath test
07:13So it's not the same like per mill so you have to take it by two
07:17So actually you have 1.0
07:19Okay, so driving anywhere right now would be
07:24illegal
07:24First up, I need to drive in a straight line on a countryside road again
07:29Okay
07:32Even though like this is a driving simulator like the assumptions on speed are very very differently to
07:40compare when you're sober which is
07:43Crazy even though you feel like you're driving like 100 you could be going 120 easy
07:54Probably like the one thing you just like less give a s**t and that's what makes you think you
08:01I don't know now i'm not driving in a straight line
08:04But that's what makes you think like you're driving you're driving good
08:08And this misperception and increased risk taking leads to more severe accidents when alcohol is in play
08:16Lowering blood alcohol limits can help decrease fatal accidents and severe injuries
08:21But the lowered limits need to be combined with a lot of police presence and enforcement like randomized breath tests
08:28Otherwise effects remain neglectable
08:31Which brings us back to my test drive
08:36When you're turning it really feels a lot like drifting because you can't really ah that was perfect turn
08:43But it's hard to
08:49Okay, yeah, but we didn't run over them, so it's still fine
08:56Sort of
08:58And then you can search for the next option, a park route
09:00Like right on the side, for example
09:03And then you can also fly in a straight line
09:06Ah! Oops!
09:08Okay, how did I drive?
09:11When you're driving drunk you have a less concentration and you'll have the willing more to risk
09:17So it's it's yeah really dangerous and um and also
09:24You have a tunnel vision and so it's difficult for you to recognize situations around you
09:30So yeah, that are the main problems when you're driving drunk
09:34So again, just don't drink and drive even when you are within the limits
09:40Now what do you do after getting smashed?
09:43Right, you get one of these kebab bad boys
09:47For me the biggest difference drunk to non-drunk was how you perceive speed
09:52Because when you're drunk you don't really feel that you're going fast
09:55Oh, you don't really see that you almost going to hit that curb or you just don't care
10:01And I think that's a pretty dangerous notion
10:04So kids, don't drink and drive
10:18This is the world's very first car
10:20Well, technically a replica
10:22It's the Benz patent motor car
10:24The automobile was born in 1886
10:27The creator Carl Benz
10:30It's more comfortable than I thought
10:32But very very loud
10:37At the back you'll see a combustion engine or gas engine as it was called back then
10:41Which burns gasoline
10:42It's a four-stroke based on the principle of the auto engine
10:47Today I'm taking you on a journey to trace the roots of this groundbreaking invention
10:51The car
10:52Our first stop
10:53Mannheim
10:54The city where Carl Benz built his motor car
10:57In Ladenburg I'll visit the Carl Benz Auto Museum
11:00And finally I'll drive part of what's known as the Bertha Benz route
11:04The very first long-distance trip in an automobile that was actually done by a woman
11:09And here in Stuttgart I'll explore the Mercedes-Benz Museum
11:12To find out what the future of the automobile might look like
11:15What goes in the tank?
11:18We fill it with white gas, ligroin, like in the old days
11:21The car won't run on modern fuel
11:23You can't buy it at the gas station either
11:26We buy it in bulk from a specialist retailer
11:29Take a whiff
11:30It smells different than the gas from the gas station
11:32More like lighter fluid
11:38No way
11:40All right
11:40Let's go
11:42Back then it wasn't as simple as just turning the ignition key
11:58This invention revolutionized transportation around the world
12:02A big step forward
12:04Even if it's not so great for the environment
12:07Today there are more than 1.5 billion cars worldwide
12:11And this year alone nearly 90 million more will likely be added
12:18Car Benz started a long tradition of car making
12:21And the world's oldest brand still exists
12:24Today it's Mercedes-Benz
12:26For my small journey in the footsteps of the first car
12:29I'm borrowing something special
12:31No, not the Benz patent motor car
12:33That one doesn't even reach one horsepower
12:36And only manages 16 kilometers per hour
12:39Way too slow
12:40That's why I went for something with a little more power
12:43The legendary Mercedes W126
12:47In the 1980s this model was the undisputed world leader in the luxury car segment
12:53And still to this day it's the most produced luxury sedan in the world
12:59So I'm off to explore car history in this beauty
13:02But first a quick stop at the museum shop
13:05Soon you'll see why
13:11This little souvenir is for two very special people
13:22All right here we go
13:23About 130 kilometers north from Stuttgart
13:30First to Mannheim
13:32And then on to Ladenburg
13:33Both cities are located between Stuttgart and Frankfurt am Main
13:43Here in Mannheim
13:44There is a huge monument to the famous inventor and car builder
13:48Because it was in Mannheim that Carl Benz built his very first car
13:52The building of his first company called the mechanical workshop was destroyed in world war ii
13:57The only thing left is a silhouette of the patent motor car
14:01A reminder of the place where automotive history was made
14:05I'm hoping to get deeper insights in Ladenburg at the Dr. Carl Benz auto museum
14:12Winfried A. Seidel a passionate car collector founded this museum here in a very special location
14:20This was the former Benz factory
14:25In 1903 Carl Benz had such irreconcilable differences with his business partners in Mannheim
14:30That he left in a huff
14:33But the name remained
14:36Benz then built a new factory here in Ladenburg
14:39That's where we are now
14:43Here too you'll find replicas of Carl Benz's very first motor cars
14:50And also faithfully reconstructed his original workshop from Mannheim
15:00His vision always comprised two perspectives
15:04That of the bicycle and the railroad
15:08I think he likely set out to combine the two
15:12He wanted to get away from train tracks but he also didn't want to pedal with his legs like on
15:18a bike
15:21That might be how the first automobile came into being
15:27This was the factory in Ladenburg shown here in the only surviving photo
15:33Worldwide only three vehicles still exist that were originally built here in Ladenburg
15:39Two of them are on display in this museum carefully restored
15:47But it wasn't just Carl his wife Bertha Benz also played a key role in the invention of the car
15:56This wasn't a woman who stood behind him she stood beside him
16:00She was obviously very interested in technology too
16:06For example it said she took her sewing machine out of their home and used it to wind induction coils
16:16And in Ladenburg Carl Benz lived in what is now the Carl Benz house until his death in 1929
16:26In the garden the Benz family had a garage built designed like a small watchtower
16:32It's probably the very first garage in the world
16:45Carl and Bertha Benz also found their final resting place here in Ladenburg
16:54Carl Benz invented the car but his wife Bertha made the first long distance drive on this very road the
17:02Bertha Benz route
17:05This route commemorates Bertha's historic trip back in 1888
17:11She drove a little over 100 kilometers
17:15from Mannheim
17:17through Heidelberg all the way to her hometown Pforzheim with her two sons and without telling her husband
17:24Why didn't Carl Benz know about this big test drive?
17:30We've got a letter where she wrote
17:34My Carl would have never allowed it
17:36My Carl would have never allowed it
17:40Why not?
17:43He was hesitant
17:46He constantly had doubts about his inventions
17:52Bertha's journey showed incredible courage because at the time it was a huge risk
18:01On this trip alone she demonstrated just how much she studied this motor vehicle
18:09It broke down a few times
18:14They ran out of fuel
18:19But she knew that at the pharmacy she could get a cleaning agent that was highly explosive and use that
18:26as fuel
18:30In the small town of Wiesloch Bertha made a halt
18:35This monument remembers her legendary pit stop
18:42Bertha had to refuel right here at the local pharmacy so this is the world's first gas station
18:55In total including the way back Bertha covered more than 200 kilometers
19:00She needed over 100 liters of water just to cool the engine
19:04And she overcame many other challenges along the way
19:10One of the cables in the electrical ignition had worn down to the bare wire
19:16She took her garter wrapped it around the cable as insulation and carried on driving
19:21There were a number of other issues
19:26One of the most serious on the return trip the brake shoes had worn down to the bare metal
19:32They were hardwood blocks that pressed against the rear axle
19:43So she went to the village cobbler and had leather nailed onto these brake blocks onto these pieces of wood
19:52That was basically the invention of brake pads
19:57Bertha Benz's trip caused a sensation
20:00Interest in her husband's motor car skyrocketed and the foundation of a global empire was laid
20:14I'm back at the auto museum in stuttgart
20:16The name benz still stands for automobile engineering today and has shaped mobility across many segments for decades
20:22Cars became more comfortable safer and faster
20:26After the era of gasoline and diesel engines the electric age has of course started here too
20:31But what does the future of mobility look like at mercedes-benz kai jadna is the man in charge of
20:36such questions his job title futurist
20:39As a futurist what would you personally like to see in the cars of the future?
20:45I hope we'll succeed in striking a balance
20:48We've got familiar things that we like and don't want to give up yet innovations should be possible too
20:55Though perhaps not all of them in a single car
20:57I think there'll be vehicles that use lots of digital tech and automation
21:02But also vehicles to drive yourself that are digitally minimalist ones that still have windows for example
21:08That connect you to the outside world and the thrill of driving a race car should still be possible
21:14I hope the future has all of this in store for us
21:17That would be modern and good
21:20I'd look forward to that
21:27Now you know who built the first car and where
21:37Cairo, Egypt
21:38Salma Awad's new home
21:40Every day the Sudanese woman does what she loves best ride a bike
21:58It was a wonderful feeling as a child whenever I got some money at parties I immediately spent it on
22:03a bike
22:07In her home country of Sudan, Salma was the first female bicycle courier supplying people with medicine in the first
22:14months of the war in 2023
22:17Today Salma is a refugee in Egypt
22:19She makes deliveries here too
22:21They are mostly small jobs such as bringing batteries to customers
22:26The language is no obstacle in her new country
22:29The Egyptians speak Arabic like she does
22:32Even if the pay is low Salma sees the positive side of the job
22:38By cycling I automatically exercise and keep fit
22:42It distracts me from my problems and it brings me at least a small income
22:50Salma doesn't let life get her down
22:52She is one of almost a million Sudanese who have fled to Egypt
22:56War is still raging in Sudan
22:58So she can't imagine returning right now
23:02But others can
23:04Cairo's main railway station has been very busy in recent months
23:07Hundreds of Sudanese families want to go back
23:10As the fighting has subsided in some areas of Sudan
23:16I'm so looking forward to going home
23:19Talking to family and friends
23:20I miss everything about Sudan
23:24Salma says she sometimes feels lonely in Egypt
23:27Then she invites friends like Aisha
23:29Who also fled the war to her aunt's apartment
23:32Salma is the only one of her nine siblings to have fled
23:35And always sends parts of her income to her brothers and sisters
23:39It's hard to reach them by phone as the network in Sudan is often too weak
23:46Salma fled when the war between the Sudanese army
23:49And the hostile RSF militia escalated in her hometown of Khartoum
23:57One day I was almost hit by a sniper
23:59I was on my bike and the bullet just barely missed me
24:03Another time fighters whipped me
24:05They demanded that I give them my bike and my cell phone
24:08I said take the cell phone but I won't give you my bike
24:11They were distracted for a moment
24:13I was able to run away with my bike
24:16They started shooting into the air
24:18It was really hard
24:29Members of Salma's soccer team arrived for dinner
24:32They're pioneers who played in the first women's soccer league in Sudan
24:40They talk about their hopes and dreams of returning one day
24:47I want to start a women's soccer academy
24:51And an all-female bicycle delivery service
25:01A passion for sports helps these women switch off and forget their troubles
25:08But few Sudanese women are able to train in Cairo
25:16Many of our girls have no uniforms, no soccer cleats
25:19It's challenging
25:21Many of them can't afford to come here, they live far away
25:25When they can celebrate a goal together, they enjoy it all the more
25:32Today was just wonderful, unlike the other days
25:35Very nice, sports brings us closer together
25:40While the others are still joking around after training
25:43Salma has to get going again quickly
25:46She hopes that a call will come for a delivery after all
25:49And that they will need her, the strong Sudanese woman on a bike in Cairo
25:56And more automotive tales next time on Rev
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