"Black Boxes" In Cars Now!

[Two Lane]

http://www.msnbc.com/news/915066.asp?0sp=W5b4&0cb=-41a77393

Did you know about these?

 

[GNSCOTT]

I think the f-body and Vette have had them on there for a while now. Someone will figure out a way to remove it, and thats just what i'm gonna do on my Vette.

 

[Drew L]

black box

Yeah, those have been around for a couple of years now. If we do nothing wrong than we have nothing to worry about. Drew

 

[NastyGn]

From some articals I have seen the black boxs are on almost all cars with air bags. The first few years did not but because some of the air bags started to deploy when the cars were not in a collision the boxs went in. Not sure how early but it was a year or so after the bags started.

It took a lawyer to find out what the boxs did. If I remember right it was a guy who was drunk driving a vette and the other person in the accident was killed. The story from the guy in the vette as to what happen was a whole lot different than what information showed in the box.

This was on 20/20 or 60 min about a year ago.

Take Care

 

[Darth Fiero]

as far as I knew GM had some kind of a black box in just about every vehicle since 1996 (OBDII). obviously the recording capabilities have been enhanced since then.

 

[equalizer442]

good thing my newest performance car is 95 lol i just find it creapy. one of these days every time we speed were gona get a ticket in the mail.

 

[pat83t]

My only question is how do they know that when he hit the other car that his drive wheels didn't come off the ground and with his foot pinned to the gas pedal the speedometer didn't jump to 103mph??

 

[gn85]

Nice arguement, Pat, but I don't think that'll work.

Yes, the article said the last second before impact was at a speed of 103. First off, I didn't catch what car it was, but most of the GM cars these days are wrong wheel drive. So in a collision the front wheels were probably smashed down and back... Next, it may be the same thing as turbo link. They said the last second, but how many seconds CAN that thing record?? It might just be like turbo link that records 50 frames before you've even hit the trigger to record. From that I'm sure you can see the speed steadily rising. Furthermore, forensics can see the difference between a 50 and a 100mph collision. I'm sure the airbags went off. It used to be that these were activated by a simple inertia switch. I'm sure these have been upgraded, and with all the other 'gadgets' that tell gravity and such, they can ascertain that the speed was that great.

Now, for the privacy issue. As the article said, the data belongs to the owner of the vehicle. But the courts can ORDER that as evidence. I'm assuming there is nothing that says you HAVE to have that in your vehicle. That it can't be disabled. Sounds like the airbag. You'll have a lot of people disabling it on the passenger side.

Interesting article.

 

[bruce]

I believe all cars with air bags, have the data recorder.
Seems like they are so uncertain about air bags, that they are using the public for data collection.

Just as a side note, look at how the laws are now getting twisted around. The air bags were to replace the seat belts, or just make their use optional. Now, it's just a lawyer and money generation devise. Occupant safety being a distant 3rd.

Yes, big brother is watching.

 

[bishir]

There is another good reason to drive a classic car....

James

 

[GnTooFast4u]

Black boxes

The black boxes that are installed in the newer GM cars can also screw you over. What I was told by a GM tech "Friend" is that it monitors every shift every little thing you do. How fast/for how long, how hard you applied brakes. So pretty much he said if something did go wrong with your car and you took it into the dealership and they run the scanner they can void warranty on your car if they feel like you abused it or where to hard on your car.

Allan

 

[Dave@ramcharger]

They only store a few seconds of info.. it isnt used to see if you are drag racing..

and yes.. gm since 96 just was more evolved on the 98 + f-bod and 97+ y-bod since the ls1 derived vehicals are the gateway to OBD III

 

[bruce]

Re: Black boxes

Originally posted by GnTooFast4u
The black boxes that are installed in the newer GM cars can also screw you over. What I was told by a GM tech "Friend" is that it monitors every shift every little thing you do. How fast/for how long, how hard you applied brakes. So pretty much he said if something did go wrong with your car and you took it into the dealership and they run the scanner they can void warranty on your car if they feel like you abused it or where to hard on your car.

That's in the PCM. From what I've heard it only counts the times you exceed a given threshold, not every event.
The crash data is another item all together.

 

[Drew L]

Are these boxes seperate from the computer in cars recording diagnostic info? Where can I find more info on these? Thanks Drew