Industry News: NHTSA On Its Way To Greenlight Black Boxes

[William Maley]

William Maley

Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com

December 10, 2012

NHTSA is expected to finalize a long-awaited proposal to make event data recorders, the 'black box' standard on all new vehicles.

Last Thursday, the White House Office of Management Budget completed a review of the proposal which has cleared the way for NHTSA to finish up the final regulation.

The proposed regulation would raise the percentage of vehicles required to have a black box from 91.6% today to 100%. The incremental cost is expected to be around $24.4 million if the sales of vehicles stand at 15.5 million per year.

The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers agrees with the proposed rule but says the Government needs to take into account privacy of driver.

"Event data recorders help our engineers understand how cars perform in the real world but looking forward, we need to make sure we preserve privacy. Automakers do not access EDR data without consumer permission, and any government requirements to install EDRs on all vehicles must include steps to protect consumer privacy," said spokeswoman Gloria Bergquist.

Currently, if your vehicle has a EDR, its yours. If Law Enforcement wants a peek at it, they need to get a court order.

Source: The Detroit News

William Maley is a staff writer for Cheers & Gears. He can be reached at [email protected] or you can follow him on twitter at @realmudmonster.

View full article

[Camino LS6]

I so hate this.

[Drew Dowdell]

most of the auto manufacturers do this already and have for years

[daves87rs]

And I already know of people who had those used against them...people are going to find out quick there are not going to have "rights" while driving a car.

While I hate it, there are simply too many drivers (stupid ones)we need this for....

[Drew Dowdell]

I drive a 1981

[balthazar]

What's the procedure for denying a court order? Oh yea- there is none.

There is more than enough testing, computer simulations & data logged already, outside of black boxes, that this is totally unnecessary for those purposes.

[G. David Felt]

This is totally focused on allowing big brother to dictate what you do and when. I would not be surprised to see them put in a hidden ability for law enforcement to turn off the car so they can force you to stop and ticket or arrest you. This is another step in the multitude of steps they have been doing to control you and dictate what, where and when you can do something.

[Drew Dowdell]

So the key question is: what models are in the 8.4% of new cars sold without them?

[balthazar]

Might as well ask here- when did they start getting installed, and does my '04 Silverado have an EDR?

[William Maley]

Might as well ask here- when did they start getting installed, and does my '04 Silverado have an EDR?

Yes, your 04 Silverado has an EDR. GM I believe was one of the first automakers to put 'black boxes' into vehicles in the 90s.

[G. David Felt]

So then it is probably a given that my 04 CTS, 05 SRX, 06 ESV and 08 Trailblazer SS all have this bloody thing!

[Drew Dowdell]

If you drive the General... pretty much anything that was released or updated after 1994 will have some sort of device like this...all vehicle with Onstar built in will have it.

[G. David Felt]

If you drive the General... pretty much anything that was released or updated after 1994 will have some sort of device like this...all vehicle with Onstar built in will have it.

WOW did not know it went back that far, so all my onstar equipped auto's are tracked.

[Drew Dowdell]

If you drive the General... pretty much anything that was released or updated after 1994 will have some sort of device like this...all vehicle with Onstar built in will have it.

WOW did not know it went back that far, so all my onstar equipped auto's are tracked.

Tracked? No. The data doesn't go anywhere. All that onstar does is notify emergency response if airbags deploy or certain sensors are tripped. (Someone with a 1000hp CTS-V tripped the g-force sensor when accelerating the car, prompting a call from Onstar to make sure everyone was ok.) But if you think about it... this is specifically what you are paying OnStar for in the first place.

They record event data in a rolling log... older stuff is deleted as newer stuff is recorded, but only a fixed amount of time ranging from a few minutes up to an hour. All of the concern over this is prompting me to do an article on it though.

[Camino LS6]

I simply despise it, and would love to see this reversed.

It's just wrong.

[Camino LS6]

If you drive the General... pretty much anything that was released or updated after 1994 will have some sort of device like this...all vehicle with Onstar built in will have it.

WOW did not know it went back that far, so all my onstar equipped auto's are tracked.

Tracked? No. The data doesn't go anywhere. All that onstar does is notify emergency response if airbags deploy or certain sensors are tripped. (Someone with a 1000hp CTS-V tripped the g-force sensor when accelerating the car, prompting a call from Onstar to make sure everyone was ok.) But if you think about it... this is specifically what you are paying OnStar for in the first place.

They record event data in a rolling log... older stuff is deleted as newer stuff is recorded, but only a fixed amount of time ranging from a few minutes up to an hour. All of the concern over this is prompting me to do an article on it though.

Your car can be tracked with Onstar. That's how its stolen vehicle recovery feature works. Oh, and it can shut the car down.

The devil here is how this might be used against an owner - the implications are obvious.

[Drew Dowdell]

it's not tracked unless the owner activates the stolen vehicle locater services.

and if you don't want the stolen vehicle slow down service well... this blurb from OnStar says it directly: "OnStar subscribers have the choice to opt-out of the Stolen Vehicle Slowdown service at any time by contacting OnStar if they prefer not to have this capability on their vehicle. This will not affect the rest of their OnStar services."

[Camino LS6]

Doesn't matter.

Mandating this for every car is simply invasive and wrong - and it will be used against owners, and the use will be broadened in the coming years.

[FAPTurbo]

OH NOES TEH GUVMENT IS GONNA FIND OUT ABOUT IRRESPONSIBLE AND DANGEROUS DRIVING HABITS OH SAVE US LADY LIBERTY!!111!

[Camino LS6]

Irresponsible and dangerous according to whom?

I'm sorry, but I just don't see being a compliant drone as a good thing.

[balthazar]

Camino is dead right. Because the Gov't is involved, it will do what it always does, mushroom larger & larger.

May not happen next year, but it absolutely will.

"pretty much every GM vehicle after 1994" - I would like to learn for sure how to tell which vehicles do & don't.

BTW- I have no OnStar (service or button) in my truck.

[Camino LS6]

It won't just be the government either.

Just wait until your insurance company gets access.

Or the finance company that issued your loan...

Or your employer...

[Robert Hall]

Irresponsible and dangerous according to whom?

I'm sorry, but I just don't see being a compliant drone as a good thing.

This information could also be used to send a compliance drone after you...

If I were paranoid, I would assume all this data will be gathered and analyzed by DHS, NSA, etc for finding pre-crime scenarios and tracking potential threats. It's inevitable.

[Drew Dowdell]

You realize this was born out of the Toyota uncontrolled acceleration issue, right?

[Camino LS6]

That's no surprise, just a typical over-reaction by government.

[G. David Felt]

It won't just be the government either.

Just wait until your insurance company gets access.

Or the finance company that issued your loan...

Or your employer...

Finance Company New OnStar Feature:

Attention Customer Mr. Smith, due to a late payment missed exactly 59 seconds ago we are giving you 10 min to make instant electronic payment or else we will turn on the Auto shut off feature and will bring your auto to a controlled safe stop as which time you will need to exit the auto and remove all personal items as a tow truck will be dispatched to retrieve our auto. Have a nice day.

Electronic Payment required

t minus 10 min......

t minus 9 min 59 sec.....

t minus 9 min 58 sec.....