Mandatory "Black Box" Installation on All Cars

In the wake of Toyota's recent admission to sticking accelerator pedal problems on their Prius and Lexus car models, American consumers are justified in asking questions about the auto maker's handling of some obvious problems. Public queries demand answers to Toyota's quality control, accountability, and the reasoning behind delays in issuing recalls.

While these questions should be answered, we must be mindful of sideline events as a consequence to these steaming issues. If allowed, sideshow movers and shakers may push for action that could take known issues well out of perspective.

One move made by an auto industry regulator deserves some scrutiny itself.

The Fed Chimes In on the Toyota Recall Frenzy

A recent New York Times article reports that the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) administrator David Strickland has announced his agency is considering mandatory installation of "black boxes" on all cars and trucks.

Some see this as yet another excuse to further drive skyrocketing auto prices, while others believe this is another form of Big Brother monitoring.

What Are "Black Boxes"?

Originating from its use in the aviation industry as early as the 1950s, the term "black box" refers to shock- and fireproof boxes housing special instrumentation which record major events in aircraft operation. Also sometimes referred to as a flight recorders or event recorders, black boxes record pilot communications, flight control system data, weather and other critical conditions leading up to significant events - such as air crashes.

Aside from survival victims immediately following aircraft disasters, black boxes are the most sought-after items in crash site recovery. The information they contain may contribute significantly to unraveling the many questions that may otherwise be left unanswered following an air crash.

When applied to the automotive sector, black box event recorders could provide benefits similar to those seen in the aviation industry. But are these really a boon or bane?

"The Benefits Of Mandatory Event Data Recorders"?

While the NHTSA encouraged all auto sellers in the USA to incorporate black box technology in 2006, not all sellers complied in a way that made event recorder data readily available. However, thanks to the Toyota recall fracas, the dwindling flames of the traffic agency's past initiative may now be freshly refueled.

During a disclosure to a recent subcommittee hearing formed by the federal House Committee on Energy and Commerce, Strickland stated his the traffic safety administration would "evaluate the benefits of mandatory event data recorders in vehicles."

How Could Black Boxes Help?

Automotive recorder devices typically record events from five to 30 seconds before a crash, and soon afterward. The devices are generally linked to air bags, and retain information such as the speed of the car, whether the driver was applying the brakes and other facts which later can be downloaded and analyzed.

As black boxes have helped with the aviation industry, so, too, may they help in capturing otherwise unknown data surrounding automotive accidents.

How Could Black Boxes Harm? - Production Costs

With costs of many new passenger cars hovering well over the $15,000 mark, some consumers may see black box technology as another excuse to further drive up already cost-prohibitive prices. While prices may come down as sporadic incentives such as "cash for clunkers" arise, prices for automobiles are bound to continue rising.

New black boxes factor in as a possible additional contributor to automotive production costs.

Big Brother

In addition to price, others believe black boxes are another form of Big Brother monitoring.

While data recorder devices may help insurance companies sort out the sequence of events in an auto accident, the number and kind of data they can collect is virtually unlimited. Some car and truck owners may wish no-one to be privy to this information.

Depending on how many bells and whistles come with one's car, black boxes could conceivably be designed to record the following:

* speed
* acceleration rates
* braking frequency and deceleration rates
* driving patterns (including ones that insurance companies may not like)
* wheel slippage in adverse weather
* road conditions
* vehicle maintenance
* refueling stops
* oil change frequency
* locking and unlocking of doors
* whether the car doors, gas cap cover, and trunk were left unlocked
* when windows are opened and shut
* whether the car keys were left unattended in the vehicle prior to theft
* vehicle location (via GPS, LoJack, or similar technology)
* Bluetooth devices your vehicle connected to
* radio stations you listen to, as well as CDs, cassettes and other media you listen to

The list goes on... With the advent of open-source software programming, most anything is now possible.

Whom Would Black Boxes Benefit?

While the implementation of event recording technology obviously touches on production costs and privacy issues, there is a host of countless other controversies that mandatory black box enforcement can require.

All issues aside, one must simply ask, "How can a black box help the consumer?" With exception of helping a driver determine the state of their vehicle at the moment of impact, it could just as easily jeopardize a driver if the factors stacked up against them. If a trend developed so that accident or insurance investigators came to trust only what the black box "says", how can fairly account for the many factors that a box cannot monitor? This said, it's conceivable a driver may be falsely accused of mishandling their car or - worse yet - face criminal charges based on data that was misconstrued into events that never actually happened.

All this aside, what are these "benefits" that NHTSA administrator David Strickland is mulling? Is his proposed scheme part of a mere knee-jerk response to the Toyota dilemma?

Whom would black boxes benefit? Insurance companies? Auto makers?

How about the driver of the car?

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: John Melendez is a freelance writer reporting on technology, the environment, sustainability, alternative energies and "green" issues. John Melendez is a writer for hire. To email him, go to http://www.emailmeform.com/fid.php?formid=19595

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