Toyota Recalls Prompt Push for Standardized Black Boxes
The fallout from the Toyota recall disaster is impacting more than just the sale of the of the automaker's vehicles. In response to sticky gas pedals and unintended acceleration, Congress has included a provision in proposed auto safety legislation that would make it mandatory for every vehicle sold in the United States to be outfitted with a standardized event data recorder, or "black box."
Like black boxes on airplanes, these devices collect information during the seconds leading up to and following a collision, including the speed at which the vehicle was traveling and whether the brakes were applied. While most new vehicles already come equipped with some type of black box, the kinds of information they record is not uniform, nor are the procedures for collecting data from the devices.
Case in point: Black boxes used in Toyotas are based on a different technology than those used by Detroit automakers. As a result, a Toyota employee must remove the information from the black boxes and then interpret it to make the data from a Toyota black box usable - something that has made investigating the numerous recalls against the automaker even more time-consuming.
New Black Boxes May Include Video Surveillance
For the sake of improving the safety of motor vehicles, Congress wants to make it mandatory that every vehicle sold in the US is outfitted with the same type of black box, which will collect the same type of information for the same duration before and after an accident.
As a result of the federal government's push to make black boxes mandatory, tech companies like Intel have begun developing new event data recorders for motor vehicles. These new devices, however, are capable of collecting much more than standard information about the speed of the vehicle and whether or not the occupants were wearing seatbelts at the time of a crash.
The new black box systems also may include the use of video cameras - both inside and outside of the vehicle. The videos then could show exactly where the accident occurred and potentially who was at fault. The video could provide other useful information for investigating car accidents as well, such as whether the driver ran a stoplight or failed to yield to another vehicle.
Drawbacks to Mandatory Black Boxes
Those in favor of mandating black boxes in all motor vehicles point out that it could be a great resource for the police and insurance companies investigating accidents, as well as for auto manufacturers seeking to make improvements to their vehicles' safety. The information also could be helpful to injury victims seeking compensation for their losses from those responsible for harming them in automobile accidents.
However, those opposed to the use of event records in passenger vehicles raise important concerns about their privacy and whether black boxes - especially those outfitted with video cameras - unduly interfere with this important right. Civil libertarians and others worry that the information collected by the boxes could be demanded by insurance companies as a pre-condition to insuring vehicles. Coupled with GPS systems, the devices could provide the police with the ability to monitor private citizens' movements in real-time.
The privacy issue has been important enough at the state level that some states require that the car's owner give permission first before information can be taken from the vehicle's black box. However, at least 19 states routinely allow information downloaded from a car's black box to be used as evidence in criminal cases.
Others have raised concerns about possible over-reliance on technology. Just as with other components on an automobile, black boxes could be defective, rendering the information they collect unreliable. Undetected defects could provide false information, leading drivers to be held liable for accidents they did not cause.
The cost of including black boxes in passenger cars presents another drawback to the devices. While Intel claims that the technology eventually will cost about the same as a navigation system, others speculate that black boxes could raise the price of most vehicles by several thousands of dollars - something consumers in a tough economy may not be able to afford.
