While it is common knowledge that major airlines always refer to their “black box” in the event of a crash, very few people may realize that most modern cars also come equipped with a black box of their own. Leftlane friend and auto analyst, Lauren Fix, addresses questions concerning the uses and limitations of automotive black boxes.
With the recent surge in concerns over unintended acceleration cases in all automobiles, but particularly with Toyota and Lexus models, the topic of black boxes has surfaced in the public’s eye. Likely because automakers fear their consumers would only assume negative and incriminating uses could come from a car’s black box, they all do very little to advertise their widespread use.
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Beginning in the late 1990s auto manufacturers began installing black boxes, or electronic data recorders (EDR), on most new vehicles. The first intention of these devices was to be used to record data for mechanics to be able to diagnose problems, but in time, and in light of recent events, the devices are being utilized to determine the events leading up to the moment of a crash.
NHTSA released a formal Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in 2004, and later in 2006 NHTSA released a formal ruling that totaled 207 pages. The ruling does not require manufacturers install black boxes in vehicles, as the trend showed that 85 percent of vehicles would have them already. Interestingly, however, the mandate did enact a mandatory set standards for the black boxes that were to be put in vehicles on an optional basis.
The truth is, black boxes in modern cars are used to record only the last seconds of a vehicles’ actions prior to impact – serving as a source of answers for basic questions about the vehicle’s rate of travel, whether or not the driver was accelerating or breaking and for how long. As Lauren Fix explains, the device stops short of tracking your whereabouts or other potentially privacy-invasive data sets.
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