Big Brother is Watching!

[MadBill]

Makes you stop and think, yes? Drivers, Beware: Black Box Data In Cars May Be Used Against YouThe Detroit NewsAugust 20, 2003By Ann Job / Special to The Detroit NewsWhat if your car or truck could tattle on you to your insurance company?Or testify against you in court? What if information about your vehiclewere considered as infallible as DNA evidence?Wouldn't you want to know?I would, and so would Tim Leslie.The California state lawmaker has authored legislation that would requireautomakers to disclose to car buyers -- in California, at least -- if theirnew vehicles have electronic data recorders, called EDRs, that trackvehicle and driver behavior in a crash.The bill would also make clear that the data belongs to the vehicle owner,thus mandating owner approval before anyone could access the information.The devices, called "black boxes" by some, are not new. General MotorsCorp. vehicles dating back to the '70s have had them, spokesman Jim Schellsaid. Today, all new GM models do.Schell said that GM engineers, studying how to improve vehicle safety,have been tapping into the devices "a lot." He didn't elaborate.All it takes is a technician, a link and a laptop with the right software.Voila!The most sophisticated boxes -- Ford Motor Co. now has them in somehigh-end models, too -- record details about air bag operation; vehiclespeed leading up to a crash, including just before impact; whether you wereaccelerating or braking at the time; and whether or not you were wearing aseat belt.Efforts to improve auto safety are laudable. And GM's Schell said that theautomaker always gets owner approval before extracting data.But that approval does not seem to be required by law, said Leslie, aprivacy advocate. And consumers "should understand they do have a blackbox" in their vehicle, said Leslie's spokesman, Brian O'Neel.If Leslie's legislation succeeds in California, similar laws could followin other states.More should be done to clarify and explain to consumers the use of thisdata, given that vehicle monitoring and diagnostics are becomingincreasingly common. Already, prosecutors are using black box data incourt.In Florida this year, a man was sentanced to thirty years in prison forrvehicular manslaughter after the recorder in his Pontiac Firebird showed hewas going 114 mph before a fatal crash.The assistant state prosecutor in the case, Michael Horowitz, said blackbox data is akin "to where DNA was 10 years ago" in court cases.At the same time, Stephen Keating, executive director of the Denver-basedPrivacy Foundation, wonders whether insurers will want to use this data tosettle claims, to provide selective discounts to drivers who agree to bemonitored or to decide whether to continue to insure a driver at all."It's an example," he said, "where technology has gotten ahead of thelaw."

[ragingfish]

Yeah, I vaguely remember someone mentioning this a few months ago...Creepy, but if this info were to exhonerate me from any responsibility in an accident, I'd be for it.Also, with the cost of auto insurance in NJ these days, I'd absolutely be willing to let them monitor me for a discount -- if it's a decent discount that is...

[ArcsVibe]

Wow that is scary!I guess if it used for good reasons it might work, but still.....

[KSNeptune]

Given how flakey car sensors can be, I suspect the data gathered can be proven unreliable (or at least POSSIBLY unreliable) in court. For example, my dash thermometer is now stuck at 81 degrees. And one local bank's outdoor temperature sign is stuck at 105. Now I have no idea if temperature is one of the things gathered, but I could see it being a contributing factor in an accident or failure of some part. And speedometers are often wrong. Are we liable for the speed the speedometer showed, or the speed we were actually traveling? All the data is gathered from sensors, and in cars sensors fail or are mis-calibrated frequently.And there are devices we can buy to inspect, change, and delete the data. So assuming it is accurate and using it in court would be like trusting a digital picture to be unaltered and "the truth". We've all seen what a good photoshop user can do with digital photos.KSNeptune