© 2005 All Rights Reserved. Do not distribute or repurpose this work without written permission from the copyright holder(s).
Printed from https://www.damninteresting.com/retired/try-not-to-think-of-it-as-your-car/
This article is marked as 'retired'. The information here may be out of date, incomplete, and/or incorrect.
If you drive a car that was built in the last couple of years, there’s a very good chance that it’s got a little black box tucked away somewhere, keeping an electronic eye on you. These devices are called Electronic Data Recorders (EDRs), and according to the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, up to 90% of cars built in 2004 included an EDR of some kind. The idea of an EDR is to store information about the vehicle’s status and the driver’s actions in the last few seconds before an accident.
Every automaker’s EDR collects different data, but most save information such as vehicle speed, braking pressure, signal usage, headlights status, and whether occupants are wearing their seat belts. Increasingly, the data collected by EDRs is being used by police and insurance companies in accident investigations, and a number of people have had serious charges leveled against them based on data taken from their vehicle’s EDR.
In Texas, a 77-year-old woman blamed her car when she drove through a post office window and killed one of the people inside; her car’s EDR indicated the fault of the driver, and the data was used by the victim’s family in a wrongful-death suit. In a similar case, a driver involved in an accident which was fatal to the other party blamed the other driver for the excessive speed… but his own vehicle’s EDR reported his speed at 80mph in a 50mph zone.
This sort of EDR can be a good thing, in theory. It adds impartial, attentive witnesses to traffic accidents, and prevents the unscrupulous from lying their way out of responsibility. It also only records the last few seconds before an accident, alleviating privacy concerns. But in more than one instance, the data recorded by EDRs has been proven highly inaccurate, throwing their reliability into question. There is also the ever-growing concern that future EDRs will record longer-term data, which can be abused by corporations and governments, eroding an individual’s privacy. The harmless little black box of today may evolve into a GPS-enabled babysitter that monitors your every move and wirelessly tattles on you, inviting traffic citations and insurance rate increases whenever it thinks you’ve done something wrong… and there will be very little recourse when the accuser is your own automobile.
Too far fetched? Perhaps not. In 2001, some rental car companies started issuing fines to drivers when the GPS-equipped vehicles detected that the driver had exceeded the speed limit. And just last year, several insurance companies stared pilot programs where some customers were invited to connect special GPS-friendly EDR monitors to their cars. These units send data about driving habits back to the insurance company, directly affecting a driver’s rates. Naturally, drivers operating under such scrutiny are motivated to drive more safely to win the best rebate possible, but some of the devices also keep track of when and where any driving takes place, and includes that data in their rate calculations… so if one drives through a bad part of town or during rush hour, it could make one’s rates go up that month.
True, insurance companies can’t require that all drivers connect monitoring equipment to their automobiles, which means that anyone willing to fork out the non-discounted rate can continue to drive without big brother looking over their shoulder. But once these monitors become commonplace, how long will it be until the “non-discounted” rate is increased to a point well beyond the budget of the average driver? It’s very possible that only the wealthy will be able to afford privacy in the future.
The financially troubled are already getting the short end of the stick in automotive monitoring. There is a growing popularity among car dealerships to install GPS-equipped “On Time” black boxes in a purchased vehicle when the buyer’s credit is less than perfect. This unit, marketed by Payment Protection Systems Inc., sits on the dashboard and informs the driver when their car payment is late. More than four days late, and the car will be prevented from starting until payment is made. Once the car is completely paid off, the owner can have the device removed.
Of course the government also has an active interest in using GPS to follow the movements of citizens. Some states are now considering mandatory GPS units on all cars to allow for mileage-based taxes instead of (or in addition to) tradition per-gallon taxes. Reportedly, they can’t rely on odometer readings for fear that odometers might be tampered with… and they want the option to vary the tax depending on when and where an individual drives.
When a GPS unit is connected to a car, it becomes a trivial matter to store a record of everyplace the driver goes. Some systems will even allow a driver’s location to be tracked in real-time. Do we really need a virtual backseat driver in every vehicle, watching our every move? A GPS unit can be highly useful in an automobile when it reports to the driver; not when it transmits a detailed map of our movements to whomever we must answer to. It seems that 1984 is still on its way, it’s just going to be a few decades later than anticipated.
Further reading:
USA Today article on insurance-company EDRs
The “On Time” system
Wired article on gas-tax GPS units
© 2005 All Rights Reserved. Do not distribute or repurpose this work without written permission from the copyright holder(s).
Printed from https://www.damninteresting.com/retired/try-not-to-think-of-it-as-your-car/
Since you enjoyed our work enough to print it out, and read it clear to the end, would you consider donating a few dollars at https://www.damninteresting.com/donate ?
Reminds me of the movie, The Fifth Element. Bruce Willis was a taxi driver (with a vehicle that could fly), and every time he committed a traffic violation it was immediately noticed by a computer in his car, and points were instantly deducted from his license. When he ran out of points, his vehicle quit functioning.
On the one hand, EDR’s sound like a really good idea. Having spent the majority of my life in South Florida, where most large cars have invisible drivers, I know many people who were victims of elderly drivers who were completely unaware of their own culpability. However the GPS tracking of all vehicles all the time is taking things a bit far, and I would imagine there would be dozens of law suits enacted to prevent its full implementation…at least I hope so.
Indeed, the EDRs of today– simple recording devices which only save the last few seconds before an accident– are a very cool idea, provided the reliability of their data can be ensured. But the stuff on the horizon is looking scary, especially with the opt-in-or-pay-more approach many companies are using.
I wish these were in place on my ’84 K-Car Station Wagon (I needed a reliable large car for my Pet Sitting Business) and the other car about 4 years ago when a little snot on her cell phone, speeding and no doubt lost (she was from several counties over) on a one lane 25 mile an hour road slammed into the back of me because I stopped due to the driver in front of me stopping to make a left into a development.
Police were nearby and said they never heard breaks until they heard the crash. They were my breaks; if she had at least breaked at some point I would have looked into my rear view mirror to see what was coming instead of imagining I was being rammed by a tractor trailer with it’s grill smashing into the back of my car. My car, a REAL METAL STATION WAGON, was obliterated. Yes, I wore my seatbelt and I am still thankful to this day I did not have my dog with me for the ride as I almost brought her along that day.
If there had been a little black boxes in our cars, I would have gotten way more than $10,000. And too bad we were not half a mile back, as it is a law in that Borough if you are on your cell phone at the time of another traffic violation you are in BIG trouble.
She was a 24 tall beautiful girl with long blonde hair down to her mid back. My nephew came to pick me up and when he saw her crying, he said “I really feel sorry for her.” HOW I WISH THERE HAD BEEN A BLACK BOX!!
Isn’t there enough intrusion into our lives by government agencies, and corporate busibodies as it is? Now they want to monitor our every motoring move?
This is gross, blatant invasion of privacy. Where I do, or what route I take to get there is no one’s damned business but my own!
Add this to the many reasons that I drive a 35-year-old classic car.
I work in outback Australia doing geophysical logging for mineral exploration, and (unfortunatly) the company we are currently doing work for require all vehicles to be fitted with a GPS based system that measures speed and location.
Luckily they are easy to damage beyond repair
Sean
Personally I think it is a good thing. I would have the entire BB package attached to my car. But then again, I don’t speed (much), and try to obey most of the traffic laws. I suppose if I was wontonly speeding, running traffic signs, running red lights, or not siginalling, I might have a problem with it.
Tracking routes, beyond knowing if you are being a little speeder, is too much information collection. Making sure you are Obeying the Laws isn’t too much information.
I wish people would look at the last page of 1984 and realize that it says in the end all these changes will be implemented by the year 2050, think how scary that date is.
Are they going to put these on bicycles as well?
I suspect that by 2050 we’ll be in the early stages of not needing humans to do the driving of vehicles… that smart roads and smart cars will do that part and prevent most accidents. I can also see that records of vehicle traffic then will by law be deleted after a day and only accessible or storable in event of a rare accident or criminal investigation. After all, I can’t imagine celebrities and politicians wanting reporters being able to look at all their travel patterns to lie in wait for them, and then there’s the whole stalker angle.
I also think that voluntary GPS tracking units can be a very good thing – one example being the unfortunate James Kim of C-NET.
I know a few people who use devices similar to this in a foot race, where the follow vehicles of some of the teams are equipped with an APRS (amateur position reporting service) transmitter. This device has a GPS receiver and is attached to an amateur (ham) radio with packet capability. When the signal hits a digital repeater with an internet gateway, the location and ID number of the device is forwarded to a specified web site. In this way the positions of all runners during the race can be plotted on a map in near real-time. Very handy for a 120 mile race that takes 2 days.
Drakvil said: “I suspect that by 2050 we’ll be in the early stages of not needing humans to do the driving of vehicles… that smart roads and smart cars will do that part and prevent most accidents. I can also see that records of vehicle traffic then will by law be deleted after a day and only accessible or storable in event of a rare accident or criminal investigation. After all, I can’t imagine celebrities and politicians wanting reporters being able to look at all their travel patterns to lie in wait for them, and then there’s the whole stalker angle.”
Can you say “I Robot” or “Minority Report”?
CravenMorhead said: “Personally I think it is a good thing. I would have the entire BB package attached to my car. But then again, I don’t speed (much), and try to obey most of the traffic laws. I suppose if I was wontonly speeding, running traffic signs, running red lights, or not siginalling, I might have a problem with it.
Tracking routes, beyond knowing if you are being a little speeder, is too much information collection. Making sure you are Obeying the Laws isn’t too much information.”
Well, lets extend that into other things.
How about one hooked to your house to ensure you are Obeying the Laws there? Lets intall them at work as your employer can also wish to ensure you are Obeying the Laws. Your computer, your phones, all could be utilized to make sure you are Obeying the Laws.
Doesn’t the thought of being monitored make your skin crawl? Where would it stop once you let it begin?
Nope, not for me, thanks, no.
I’m really surprised no one asked why the automobiles that were wrecked couldn’t be made out of the same material as the “black box.”
I think this is altogether crappy. DAMN CONTROL FREAKS!!!
I’m scared. Seriously, seriously scared.
You can report distance without reporting location. It just has to be something that syncs up with the government’s servers at some point (live transmissions could be located via triangulation). Really if we go to electric plug-in cars, they can sync during this process. Doesnt have to be just government info being exchanged, could be like plugging in an ipod to your pc for uploading music and such. Your car could be a big giant expensive USB device in the future… or firewire if you are into that sortve thing.
So in case of an accident it would feel something like hitting a concrete wall flat-on… mmmm
well at least someone can use your car afterwards :)
Enter your reply text here. OK
Shut your whinning, this isn’t China. People you worry to much. Citizens can opt out of this “servalence”
speed kills. no matter how well you can drive, looking for trouble usually ends up with one finding it. The idea is brilliant if keeping in mind they’d like to stop offenders from killing innocents only, but they should put another system in place to do with rating. if on average you stick to the speed limit, but today a report is logged that you’ve done 60 in a 50 zone, well so bloody what? it’s not like it happens everyday. on the other hand, if you’re going over the limit on a daily basis, your license gets revoked, they slap you with a fine and you use public transport for the next 10 years. eventually they will be able to slowly relieve the congestion of traffic during peak hour AND get rid of those a**holes that drive like it’s the last day on earth and only their getting to work on time is important.
it’s an interesting idea, but i don’t think they should use it for anything other than monitoring and reporting bad driving. who cares, and frankly who has the hard drive space to record information about everything every car is doing. it’s rather pointless to know who’s driving where…unless they’re fleeing from a murder or robbery :D