OutHouse
Lifer
Just read this in the Playboy Advisor.
Question:
"This past summer congressman Bill Janklow of South Dakota sped through a stop sign into the path of a motorcyclist who was killed. The news coverage mentioned the Janklow's 1995 Cadillac had a factory-installed "black box" like the one you'd find on a airplane. What sort of data does it store? can it verify your speed? Which vehicles have these boxes and can the be removed or disabled?
Answer:
The latest boxes record your speed during the few seconds before impact, as well as whether you accelerated or braked and whether your seat belt was fastened. Janklow's box was too old to provide anything useful, but in a similar case in Florida the data helped convict a man charged with manslaughter. He had been driving his 2002 Trans Am on a residential street then he collided with a car pulling out of a driveway: Two teenagers were killed. He admitted to going 60MPH. The accident investigator calculated his speed at 98 mph. The black box recorded it as high as 114mph. He got 30 years.
As many as 40 million vehicles, including GM since 2000 and every ford since 2002, have electronic data recorders. Safety researchers, insurers and prosecutors love EDRs; opponents see them as incrimination (one defense attorney compared the technology to "having a government agent in the backseat"). Automakers that the positive that the data belongs to the vehicles owner (GM collects it for safety studies only with permission), but that doesn?t stop a judge from issuing a court order. On July 1 California will become the first state to require automakers to inform buyers if their new cars have EDTs. The technology is difficult to remove because it's integrated with the system that controls the air bags.
WTF!!! I never knew this. I wonder how I find out if my 2000 toyota Sienna has one of these? If any of you are driving a new Ford you and didnt know about this I would be very pissed.
Question:
"This past summer congressman Bill Janklow of South Dakota sped through a stop sign into the path of a motorcyclist who was killed. The news coverage mentioned the Janklow's 1995 Cadillac had a factory-installed "black box" like the one you'd find on a airplane. What sort of data does it store? can it verify your speed? Which vehicles have these boxes and can the be removed or disabled?
Answer:
The latest boxes record your speed during the few seconds before impact, as well as whether you accelerated or braked and whether your seat belt was fastened. Janklow's box was too old to provide anything useful, but in a similar case in Florida the data helped convict a man charged with manslaughter. He had been driving his 2002 Trans Am on a residential street then he collided with a car pulling out of a driveway: Two teenagers were killed. He admitted to going 60MPH. The accident investigator calculated his speed at 98 mph. The black box recorded it as high as 114mph. He got 30 years.
As many as 40 million vehicles, including GM since 2000 and every ford since 2002, have electronic data recorders. Safety researchers, insurers and prosecutors love EDRs; opponents see them as incrimination (one defense attorney compared the technology to "having a government agent in the backseat"). Automakers that the positive that the data belongs to the vehicles owner (GM collects it for safety studies only with permission), but that doesn?t stop a judge from issuing a court order. On July 1 California will become the first state to require automakers to inform buyers if their new cars have EDTs. The technology is difficult to remove because it's integrated with the system that controls the air bags.
WTF!!! I never knew this. I wonder how I find out if my 2000 toyota Sienna has one of these? If any of you are driving a new Ford you and didnt know about this I would be very pissed.
