Do You Know How Fast You Were Going? Your Car's Black Box Does

I've been following the debate over black boxes in cars and the data they collect since last summer thanks to autoblog.com and engadget.com (search on "black box"). As in airplanes, these Electronic Data Recorders (aka EDRs) can record information such as throttle or brake actuation, seatbelt usage, or even vehicle speed. Unlike airplanes, they don't record audio from inside the car.

I haven't heard of any significant developments in a while but this article from the AP details how regulation is springing up at the state level. There currently isn't much regulation on the use of the information which is highly disturbing but the state legislature of North Dakota is trying to pass a law to prevent the use of black box data in court. Seemingly less important issues - at least from a privacy standpoint - are more commonly regulated:

California has a law on the books requiring dealers and vehicle rental companies to inform drivers when a car has a black box. In New York it is illegal for rental companies to use global positioning system technology to track drivers and use the data to charge extra fees or penalties.

For some really detailed info on EDRs in cars and some of the privacy concerns, see this Nov. 2004 article from Autoweek. Most disturbing stat you may not already know: "About 65 percent to 90 percent of 2004 [model year] cars and trucks have" EDRs.


[Update 4/14/05]
North Dakota soon to adopt new legislation on protection of the data. Some laws are better than no laws but this one would still leave the data open to retrieval by court order. Thanks to Engadget.com for the update.