Automotive "Black Box" Coming in 2014

What manufacturers aren't installing them in new cars in the US ?

 

I can't accurately answer this question as I believe every manufacturer installs an EDR in some products just not every product they make. You can find the less then 100% installation compliance on the NHTSB.gov site.

What is currently regulated in the US is what parameters should be monitored and a standardized method of capturing and downloading subject data should a manufacture opt to install a EDR unit.

 

But is the figure on the NHTSB site new cars or all cars on the road ?

ie , the older cars still on the road are the ones making up the percentage of vehicles that do not have them

 

Depending on where you look they have both. A quick search revealed Audi, BMW and Mercedes Benz don't put them on all US products yet...

 

I would say no more than scrapping body tissue off the grill of your car after you run down a pedestrian.

Or testing your gun for a ballistics match to a bullet from a murder scene.

Or taking your fingerprint to test against those at a crime scene.

Or testing your DNA for a match, etc.

Why would you consider it compelling testimony? What is it about this data that is different than the examples I have listed?

 

I would like to say that I don't agree with these boxes. I worked at a water company that installed units that were supposed to talk to the central hub and inform them of what maintenance was due.. right after the workers union signed off on it, they start busting people for idling for longer than 5 minutes and threatening people with being fired for going 5 over the speed limit despite CA V.C. 22350. They'd monitor your route and make sure you didn't deviate to other locations. It was bullshit, I wasn't part of the union, I only worked part time for the lab and my boss called up and said I did 5 over here and there and I told him I was going with traffic and I would no longer use company vehicles for the remainder of the contract (which was a month) and that's how I "quit" my job, because my boss hung up on me lol

So having witnessed a slippery slope on full display, I'm hesitant to go along with anything like this. they say no GPS and it's your data. then "in 2015 there will be GPS tracking to blah blah blah" and shit doesnt get warrantied because you went over 75% throttle within 4 minutes of start up or some cheesy bullshit

 

Any automobile that has an air bag system has a data recorder.

Only the manufacturer can access the info. An insurance company or police dept can get a court order to review the data.

 

These boxes do not transmit. They don't have the ability to transmit.

And if that time comes, THEN will be the time to fight.
At this point, it is merely recording the last few minutes of conditions prior to the accident. It's not even recording as much as aircraft recorders (which the pilots' union fought).

Not true.

Airbags predate recorders by over 10 years. The first airbags appeared around 1981. Airbags OR automatic seatbelts have been mandatory since 1989 in the US. 1998, passenger airbags became required.
Every vehicle sold in the US since 1999 has had at least two airbags, recorders didn't start appearing until around 2000, but are STILL not on every vehicle with air bags, including Mercedes and Audi.

While a court order is required for police to access the information, they do not have to involve the manufacturer.
That might have been the case a few years ago with the Toyota units (that's what we were told, that only Toyota could do it, and Toyota only had ONE download module ), but the systems used in American vehicles can be accessed by anyone in possession of the Bosch module and software. Pretty good chance that every police agency has that.
But to use it would still require a warrant, or it could be downloaded under "search incident to arrest".

If you are involved in an accident and are arrested, the arrest itself is sufficient warrant for searching the vehicle for drugs and alcohol, as well as retrieval of the EDR information.

 

I'd be ok with it once there is a bill in place making the data the owners data that has to be court ordered in order to retrieve it from said owner

 

This is in process. It's on a state by state basis and something like 13 states have already addressed it.

 

obama would have complete control of everything if he had the chance

 

:wileyC: