The technical term for an automotive “Black Box” is the Event Data Recorder (EDR). The EDR can be a variety of devices that record onboard information and vary according to make and model of the vehicle. GM has a Sensing Diagnostic Module (SDM) and a Rollover Sensor (ROS). Fords have a Restraint Control Module (RCM) as well as a Powertrain Control Module (PCM). Chryslers have an Occupant Restraint Controller (ORC). The SDM, RCM, ORC are called Airbag Control Modules (ACM). These devices measure an acceleration pulse and determine whether there is sufficient severity to warrant the deployment of the airbags. Once the algorithm “wakes up” it then must decide, very quickly, whether the airbags should be deployed. If the airbags do deploy, there is a recording of the crash severity (Delta-V) and there may be additional information such as vehicle speed, seatbelt usage, throttle position and brake on/off data, among others. In some situations there can be data captured without airbag deployment.

Our engineers can help you determine if your vehicle may have stored data without a deployment. This information has been found to be extremely useful in the reconstruction of vehicle accidents and all attempts are made to gather this information if possible. It is important to realize that not all systems can be downloaded at this time. The crash data retrieval system (CDR) that we use is presently only able to download GM, Ford and Chrysler vehicles, and several other smaller manufacturers such as Isuzu, Mitsubishi, Sterling and Suzuki. Unfortunately, other manufacturers, particularly those based overseas, are not supported by the CDR software. There are rare occasions when data from these vehicles can be obtained, so please contact us for further information. The CDR system can be plugged into the port on the underside of the dash (similar to the outlet a mechanic would use) or directly into the “black box” which is found inside the vehicle or engine compartment. The “black box” can be downloaded on site, or at our lab if it has been removed.

To determine if the vehicle in question is downloadable, click  here for a list of presently supported vehicles. Importantly, we consider the crash data a “supplement” to a proper accident reconstruction. Typically, the downloaded information corroborates previous findings with respect to impact speed, Delta-V/Severity, seatbelt use and pre-crash behavior.florida motorcycle helmet law 2012 This information is particularly useful in the moments leading up to the collision, as very often there is no physical evidence that can be used to establish what the driver was doing. motorcycle tire changer forumFor example, a vigorous accident reconstruction can determine the speed of the vehicle with good precision at impact, however it is often not known whether that vehicle was accelerating, coasting, or braking in the seconds leading up to the crash. kawasaki klx 125 motorcycles for sale

With “black box” data, a history of up to twenty-five seconds can establish these parameters. Usually the download of the CDR data is relatively straight forward, however there are some circumstances where evidence spoliation can occur if the “black box” is improperly accessed. You can trust the engineers at FDi to not only properly download the data but also analyze the data. texas dmv motorcycle bill of saleWe have seen many cases where the data is corrupted. motorcycle repair worcester parkFortunately, there are many ways to validate and verify information which was downloaded.motorcycle repair newport oregonIt's looking very likely that a bill in Congress that will make mandatory the use of "black boxes"— more formally, Event Data Recorders (EDR) — will become law soon. motorcycle clothing gloucester

These are little computers clad in rugged casings that record data from your car's various sensors and computers to use for accident investigation and, very likely, other uses. There's lots of privacy concerns around this new bill, and lots of questions as to exactly what that little boxy black snitch is snooping on. Plus, what about the voluntary black boxes some insurance carriers are offering? Let's see what we can clear up. GM was the pioneer here, starting to install them in the late '90s, and by 2005 a number of marques (GM, Ford, Isuzu, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Subaru and Suzuki) were putting them on everything. According to the NHTSA, about 91.6% of cars currently have them. Notable exceptions are Audi and Mercedes-Benz, but this new law will change that. If you're like many of us Jalops, myself included, you may be driving a car that predates OBD-anything, so, unless you have a very technologically adventurous stalker, you likely don't have one. The law does not appear to require retrofitting the devices to, say, your King Midget.These black boxes are not GPS devices, and do not track where you're going.

So your drug-prostitute-deep fried food secret habits are still safe, as long as you don't get in a wreck with your hookers and crack and mouthful of fried cheese.Great question, disembodied voice. And a surprisingly tricky answer to find. Most articles just mentioned the bill requires 15 separate data points to be recorded, without listing what they are. While more data can be recorded based on manufacturers' own desires, these are the 15 data points that would be required by the new law— well, this list has 17, so maybe there's a couple others: As you can tell, most of this data is designed to aid in accident investigations, to help determine who was at fault, if any laws were broken, and to determine driver input compared to car performance to aid in investigations like the Toyota unintended acceleration incidents.This is actually the best part about this new law, because it clearly states that you, the car's owner, owns the data. I don't think any of us are thrilled about having these things in our cars, but if it's going to happen anyway, a law like this is needed to protect car owners.

I'm a firm believer that any and all data your car generates should be the easily-accessible property of the owner. As the IIHS says on their site about this: EDRs and the data they store belong to vehicle owners. Police, insurers, researchers, automakers and others may gain access to the data with owner consent. Without consent, access may be obtained through a court order. For example, in a Florida criminal case involving a vehicular manslaughter charge, the police obtained a warrant to access the EDR data.For crashes that don't involve litigation, especially when police or insurers are interested in assessing fault, insurers may be able to access the EDRs in their policyholders' vehicles based on provisions in the insurance contract requiring policyholders to cooperate with the insurer. However, some states prohibit insurance contracts from requiring policyholders to consent to access.I'd be more concerned about what private insurance companies would do with this data than I am what the police would do with it, so if you're in a state that allows your insurance company to require you to let them access the data, make sure you carefully read your contract.

The fact that the data is your property will also prevent it from being used by advertisers and/or dealerships (whew) and law enforcement agencies will normally need a warrant to get the data. This point about requiring a warrant has already been tested in court, with the appeals court reversing an original manslaughter conviction of a California driver, stating of the police's access to the driver's Yukon's EDR data:"We conclude that a motorist's subjective and reasonable expectation of privacy with regard to her or his own vehicle encompasses the digital data held in the vehicle's SDM."That means the cops can't bully your car into testifying against you, its loving owner. The data is retrieved via either a connection to your ODB port in your car, or, if you had a really dramatic wreck that left your car strewn over a quarter mile of highway, the EDR itself may be removed from the mess and the data retrieved directly. In order to help enforce the idea that the data is the owner's property, there have been proposals (and this patent) for lockable OBD port access panels.

You own it, but warrants can be gotten, data can be downloaded, and, potentially, you could be screwed. More alarming is the potential for unauthorized access, or even inadvertent access to the data. It's happened before, such as in the case of Nissan Leafs sending GPS and speed data in unencrypted text to websites for voluntary crowdsourcing and tracking of fuel economy data.This new law itself isn't too bad, in that if we accept that these recorders were already appearing on cars, it's good to have some legal protection of the data. What's more alarming are third-party tracking systems from companies like Progressive, which promise lower rates, but at the cost of making the consumer far more vulnerable. Plus, these private systems are not necessarily subject to the same laws that protect owners for the federally-mandated black boxes. I sure as hell wouldn't want my insurance company tracking everything I do— their primary goal is to make money, and I don't trust my data would be used for any goals other than that.

Wary, but not paranoid. This new bill will give a reasonable level of protection, but never forget that while this will likely help greatly for traffic safety and accident investigation, there is a huge privacy hole being opened, and if we're not constantly vigilant and careful, abuses will happen.As it stands now, with cable-based retrieval, you can have a reasonable degree of assurance that your data is safe. Some companies, like BMW, are experimenting with wireless transmission of this sort of data, to schedule maintenance and alert dealerships of service needs. If this becomes more common, safeguarding data integrity will become a much more difficult issue.Maybe, if these things are hackable. I'm picturing some interesting art possibilities using your car's data to produce interesting visualizations. Plus, wouldn't you like to hack this so your car can Tweet it's throttle position every minute? But I bet there'll be some fun hacks to be found in these things. (Sources: IIHS, Google Patent Search, Computerworld, Forbes)