Black box data recorders--coming to a car near you!!

[Dengineer]

Did anyone else see this coming?

washingtonpost.com

All new cars would have to be equipped with "black boxes" that record performance data and federal safety regulators would be granted the authority to order immediate recalls under newly proposed auto-safety legislation being considered by Congress.

[lestelle]

Didn't have to see it coming, cars have had similar devices going back as far 1998. If your car has airbags, it most likely will have black box. Just like the airline event recorders, it was primarily to record data leading up to and including crashes. Insurance companies and auto makers used them during lawsuits. Dad owned a body shop and when the car was involved in a "questionable" accident (such as someone said they tried to apply the brakes but claimed they didn't work but in actuality, the driver didn't remember that they had actually hit the clutch instead) the insurance company or manufacturer's rep would come and pull the component from the car.

Currently, not all manufacturers use them. GM has had them since 1998 on some models. Ford has used them since 2005.

I don't see anything wrong with an event recorder provided the information can't be remotely accessed or tied to GPS. I would be totally against the second type of recorder used in airplanes, the Cockpit Voice Recorder.

[$Saving!]

Did anyone else see this coming?

washingtonpost.com

There have been many cars with them already, but consumers were not informed.

When computer components became the new operating system in cars, it was easy to track every function of a vehicle, braking, speed, turn signal use etc.

Just a matter of time.

[heartse]

i was unaware of it until i had an accident, and now Pontiac is pulling the data just to see why exactly my airbags didn't deploy. I don't have a problem with it... it can help determine what happened. The way I understand it, there's a sliding window of 20 seconds that it keeps data for, or something there abouts. It stores information like speed, whether brakes or gas are applied, and the status of any sensors in the vehicle.

But, like Lestelle, I would take issue if they tried to install "cockpit" recorders in personal vehicles!

[Dengineer]

Well, like most things--I don't have a problem with it when companies do things with their own products. It's the whole "government passes helpful new legislation to keep everyone safe" that bothers me.

[loaslaen]

Did anyone else see this coming?

Of course!

[CW&M Mom]

I heard about it years ago.

[Dengineer]

I heard about it years ago.

You heard about this new legislation that was just proposed yesterday YEARS AGO? That seems strange...

[jrobertson911]

My main issue with these is that I own the car, all information enclosed in the vehicle is my personal property. You need a few things to be able to access my personal information....a warrant, a signed agreement by me, or over my dead body. What people don't realize is that when you sign up for your insurance policy and request reimbursement through them for an accident, you're signing over the rights to your personal data contained in these recorders.

Most of the time, it's no big deal, but as with any government or commercial intrusion into personal freedoms and privacy, it doesn't ever stop there. The same thing happened with health insurance. First we pay for the insurance and ask them to pay our bills....then, they wanted more control, so we had to begin giving the doctor's a signed waiver to disclose our personal medical information with a financially based insurance company. Now, we'll no doubt be giving our medical information to the government too, thanks to our wonderful new health bill. But....I digress.....

First, we're allowing our private information to be given to insurance companies because we want them to pay for our car (no big deal, that's the price we pay for having insurance). Second, we'll end up having legislation that allows police or a government agency to access these records directly or through the insurance companies without a warrant for "investigative or safety reasons". Every invasion of privacy starts with "it's for your own good to keep you safe" line.

What's next.....the recorders that not only record the last 30 seconds of your car data but then GPS mapping as well? I've resigned myself not to come back and check this thread simply because of the responses I know will come..."oh, that wouldn't ever happen, it's just to keep us safe, the government is supposed to take care of us and watch over us", blah blah blah.... :shrug7:
I think I learned my lesson with the healthcare debate thread!!!

[CW&M Mom]

You heard about this new legislation that was just proposed yesterday YEARS AGO? That seems strange...

No I heard about the Black Box data recorders---coming to a car near you...you know the title of your thread.