bigpoppanils Posted July 15 Report Share Posted July 15 Does your car have a 'black box' recorder? July 13, 2003BY MATTHEW No one disputes that Michelle Zimmermann lost control of her 2002 GMC Yukon on a two-lane highway in Massachusetts one snowy afternoon last January. Her friend died after the SUV slammed into a tree.Zimmermann claims she was driving within the 40 mph speed limit, but like millions of other Americans the 33-year-old didn't know that her vehicle had a "black box." It recorded the last few seconds before the crash.Bolstered by data that they say indicates Zimmermann was driving well above the speed limit, prosecutors have charged the Beverly, Mass., woman with negligent vehicular homicide. She has pleaded innocent and faces up to 2-1/2 years in jail if convicted.An estimated 25 million automobiles in the United States--almost every newer GM car--now have so-called event data recorders, a scaled-down version of the devices that monitor cockpit activity in airplanes. What the devices record increasingly finds its way into courtrooms, leading some privacy advocates to question how the recorders came to be installed so widely with so little public notice."It's like having a government agent driving around in the back seat of your car," said Bob Weiner, Zimmermann's defense attorney and a former prosecutor. Most people apparently don't even know whether the vehicles they drive are equipped with event data recorders. Nearly two-thirds of people surveyed by an insurance industry group knew nothing about them.Prosecutors, police and accident reconstructionists say the boxes yield information no different from what can be gleaned from crushed metal, skid marks and other evidence at the scene. Now, they say, calculations can be backed up."It's appearing in prosecutors' cases in support of the normal reconstruction," said W.R. "Rusty" Haight, director of the Collision Safety Institute.A number of recent court cases across the country have involved event data recorders.*In early June, Edwin Matos of Pembroke Pines, Fla., was sentenced to 30 years in prison for slamming his car into a vehicle driven by two teenage girls, killing both. Recorder data showed he was driving more than 100 mph just seconds before the crash.*In April, Arlington Heights police officer Charles Tiedje received a $10 million settlement after data from the hearse that struck his squad car contradicted claims that the driver blacked out. The device showed the supposedly unconscious driver accelerated and braked in the moments before the October 2000 crash."It was a huge difference in our case because it showed that the other driver was a liar," said Bob Clifford, the Chicago personal injury attorney who handled Tiedje's case. Clifford said checking to see if the car has a crash data recorder is now commonplace on all auto accident cases for his firm. "There are circumstances where that does not lend any assistance, but you are no worse off because of it," he said.The devices' primary function is to monitor sensors and decide whether to fire air bags. But secondary and more recently installed features in many recorders store data from seconds before a crash.General Motors Corp. has been using recording-capable devices, called Sensing and Diagnostic Modules, since the 1990s to help improve safety and gather statistics. GM spokesman Jim Schell said consumer privacy has always been a top concern."We collect the data with the permission with the owner or the person who is leasing the vehicle," he said. The modules helped GM figure out why some air bags were deploying inadvertently, leading to a recall in 1998 of more than 850,000 Cavaliers and Sunfires.But there's a lot more interest in the data beyond engineering--namely, from lawyers.GM and, more recently, Ford Motor Co. now allow outsiders to access the data by buying a $2,500 reader built by Santa Barbara, Calif.-based Vetronix Corp. The company says its primary customers are accident reconstructionists, law enforcement and insurance companies.So far, about 1,000 of the devices have been sold. The company hopes to reach deals to cover data from other carmakers.The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has been studying data recorders for years, trying to determine whether the auto industry should standardize the equipment. Any decision could be years away, and there's no guarantee privacy would be addressed then. Agency spokesman Tim Hurd said state courts should decide what's admissible.Attorney Clifford dismisses the privacy concerns because driving --and crashes--are public."The privacy issues are frivolous because there cannot be any reasonable expectation of privacy in how fast you are going because other people can observe you on the road," he said. "The privacy claim is just an excuse for keeping people from knowing the truth."AP, with Lucio Guerrero contributing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigpoppanils Posted July 15 Author Report Share Posted July 15 my car definitely has one Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest saleen351 Posted July 15 Report Share Posted July 15 not on the c5's...when the c5 came out, someone leaked this, and vette owners turned their cars back in... GM fixed it and removed it from the computer.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teklord310 Posted July 15 Report Share Posted July 15 Exactly the reason my x-boss won't get EZ-Pass.Someone got into an accident at some point on a Ez-Pass highway. The insurnace company or whomever investigated and checked with EZ-Pass and found the person was driving well above the speed limit by calculating the times between toll booths. Insurance refused to pay for the accident because of high speed driving.Be careful... technology is taking over. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest saleen351 Posted July 15 Report Share Posted July 15 Originally posted by teklord310 Exactly the reason my x-boss won't get EZ-Pass.Someone got into an accident at some point on a Ez-Pass highway. The insurnace company or whomever investigated and checked with EZ-Pass and found the person was driving well above the speed limit by calculating the times between toll booths. Insurance refused to pay for the accident because of high speed driving.Be careful... technology is taking over. most people use it to get on, and they just use coins when they get off.......also though ezpass puts your car at that spot on a certain day.. I've see the guys on the tv law and order use it to catch people... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HAZE Posted July 15 Report Share Posted July 15 Damn, that's crazy shit.On the GS Parkway, they calculate the time it takes for you to get from toll to toll and if you're speeding, they send you a ticket in the mail. I usually alternate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cintron Posted July 15 Report Share Posted July 15 this is why I love1.) OBD I cars with a computer chip larger than your wallet2.) Not having EZPass anymore. Fuck the State, hardcore.3.) The taconic pkwy. No tolls, just wide-open fun once you reach the mountains south of I-84. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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