Hey guy's I found this interesting and wanted to know your opinions, etc..
It seems as though (in America predominantely) new cars are being sold with "black boxes" identical if you will to the "black boxes" in air planes. Over 30 million cars contain them in America and most all new cars do. Basically they store information related to speed, seat belt wearing, air bag deployment, rapid braking- most only store 1 tenth to 1 second of information before and after an accident with the primary use to be used against drunk drivers, people who cause accidents or for manufactures/ insurance companies to determine why an accident happened. YES this information can be used against you! esp. the speed racers in all of us! they track high speeding, etc. Check out the article:
http://pf.channel.aol.com/bw/general...24160009990001
Lemme know whatcha think!
peace.

 

I don't think the collection of this type data is preventable, whether it's cameras in public places, traffic/red light cameras, gps-based movement tracking, personal buying habits, vacation habits, etc. etc. The article makes the insurance industry out to be the bogeyman regarding privacy issues surrounding the black box, but in the long run I'd rather have the data in the hands of private industry vs government, especially the feds.

 

i agree. better insurance then the government however insurance could really screw people like us over that love to drive their cars and what not. you can't go draggin' or solocrossin' without a license and it's not wise to do with out insurance. i mainly dislike this because for any of you (us) street racers any unfortunate circumstances and if that black box was used against you by insurance or in a court that would make it worse. but i guess breakin' the law is simply "breakin' the law" so no matter what yur screwed - just don't forget your lawyer he's yur expensive friend.

 

To get even more conspiracy theory/black helicopter on ya, I’ve heard talk of this kind of thing in combination with a system such as OnStar. So say you modify your car and go and test in on your favorite back road…and your car calls in and notifies “tha man” that you have modified the emissions system and are speeding. The car then tells you that you have a minute to find a place to pull over before it immobilizes itself, and the authorities should be with you shortly. What is really scary is that the technology and infrastructure is already there…and is unregulated so far. Or I've been watching too many movies.

 

well it's technically unconstitutional for the government to monitor you like this to see if you're breaking the law. do you honestly think the ACLU would go along with this quietly?

 

The data collected varries by manufacturer. GM measures in slightly different ways than Ford does for instance. However, they only will record the data when the airbags deploy. They cant determine your speed, just usually if your seatbelts were in use, the brakes were applied (but not amount of pressure) and throttle use. The data obtained is usually retained by the manufacturer only. There is only one company that makes the hardware available to read the data and it is extremly expensive. Unless you are involved in a accident involving a fatality, it generally won't be retrieved. Is it ethical? who knows, but it's here to stay. I have seen the readings before and they really don't say much. I'm an accident investigator and it's pretty easy to figure out a crash without the data from a box. (I know i'm going to catch crap for this)

 

yes an accident investigator could look and figure calculations with measurements from skid marks, etc to determine what basically happened. BUT alike onstar (which i hadn't heard of until now) this data logging like they do on airplanes is kind of creepy..
i dunno, i don't worry about these boxes, i am unsure if MY02 even has it but either way it's more of a point of politics and possibly ethics..

 

The new BMW has this and will be used to void warranties if they find that you are using the car for autocross or drive like an a$$. It won't be long now until every vehicle has this.

 

easiest way to stay away from this is to buy a Japanese car

 

That is pretty wierd about the onstar deal. They will not even cooperate with us (police) until the car has officially been entered as stolen in aiding in retrieval. That would really suck if it sent info about driving behavior and vehicle mods. Creepy....

 

yea it's all a pretty crappy set up. but i mean jeez what do you expect already?!