An estimated 25 million automobiles in the United States now have event data recorders, a scaled-down version of the devices that monitor cockpit activity in airplanes. Like aviation recorders, automobile black boxes mainly receive attention after an accident.

The devices' primary function is to monitor various sensors and decide whether to fire air bags. Since the 1998 model year, all new cars from all manufacturers have been required to have air bags and so most such recent-model cars have the devices. But secondary and more recently installed features in many recorders store data from a few seconds before a crash.

Privacy advocates worry that the information collected by these devices may be misused, but some highway safety and public health advocates believe the data will go a long way toward keeping people alive.

From sfgate.com:

[Dr. Ricardo] Martinez, an emergency room physician [and former head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration], said he wants black boxes mandated for all vehicles and says gathering proper data from crashes... is as important a public health issue as medical research.

"You can't attack any problem until you understand the cause," said Martinez, who now heads an Atlanta firm involved in an effort with the Georgia Institute of Technology to develop a data recorder and accident reporting device called the MacBox.

I'm just not sure why this is the first I've heard about the black box in my car. Did you know?

Love

SUICIDEGIRL

I'm lost

AUG 06, 2004 12:13 PM

Some rental car companies have similar devices in cars that can tell if you've been offroading, speeding, going across state lines, or otherwise breaking the rental agreement. Crazy isn't it?

[Edited on Aug 06, 2004 by Love]

mqx

Seattle, WA

January 2003

AUG 06, 2004 12:31 PM

It's also said that some car companies may be able to use the information (such as speeding or extreme braking) to void your warrenty or service plans. Welcome to the future!

Cigarette

Cleveland, OH

April 2004

AUG 06, 2004 03:09 PM

Hm, I heard about this many months ago.

"Privacy" vs. "security"... an age old question.

If it's a rental car then, hell, it's not your car. You don't like it, don't rent it.

If it's MY car... well... maybe it'll be useful to me and make car upkeep easier. Maybe I go 90 mph to important meeting and I get a ticket in the mail a week later. The jury's still out on that one, for me.

mr_sunshine

Abbotsford, BC

June 2004

AUG 06, 2004 03:13 PM

These boxes could prove invaluable to insurance adjusters. imagine in you were the only person in a car hit by a group of speeding teenagers. The box in both cars could provide a much more accurate description of the accident.
This device scares me much less than, say, OnStar. OnStar is both a GPS and cell phone in one, but you can't actually control when the phone turns off. I've heard stories of customers listening to the conversations of operators after their calls were officially over, so why not the other direction? A built-in tracking device and wiretap seems just rife for abuse from law enforcement.

[Edited on Aug 06, 2004 3:13PM]

NatasKaput

Bozeman, MT

December 2002

AUG 06, 2004 03:33 PM

Love said:
Some rental car companies have similar devices in cars that can tell if you've been offroading, speeding, going across state lines, or otherwise breaking the rental agreement. Crazy isn't it?

[Edited on Aug 06, 2004 by Love]

most of those are piggyback chips on CPUs both rental cars i've used i pulled em right off