I am sure that many of you have heard the term “Black Box” data recorders which are usually associated with airplanes and airplane accidents.
Did you know that many manufacturers are now installing Black Box Data Recorders in Cars? probably not. Black Box data recorders have been put into cars for years now and nobody knows it, or it has been kept very low key; now you know.
Black Box data recorders in cars can give data such as speed at the time of an accident, gear position, braking position, direction of car, whether seatbelts were being worn, etc.
Obviously this type of data is huge for personal injury lawyers such as me. It can help get around the he said, she said, arguments for who as at fault in an auto accident, and get right to the root of actual fault. Many Personal Injury lawyers do not even know about Black Boxes being installed in cars.
There is one dilemma when it comes to Black Boxes in cars; your right to privacy is out the window. It can be predicted in the future that GPS enabled black boxes will allow Big Brother to track your movements, and potentially even disable your car.
You can read a couple of stories about Black Boxes in cars by clicking here, and by clicking here.
Technology can be good and bad. In the hands of the wrong people, it can be used to usurp the freedoms we so love in the United States. I say cast a weary eye on anyone who wants to use fear as a motive to get us as Americans to give up the freedoms that generations of us have fought and died for.
The least the car companies could do is to let us know if a Black Box is installed in our car, and to let us know what its capabilities are. As a matter of fact I think it should be legally mandated that we as consumers be notified by car manufactures if a Black Box is installed in our car.
Like I said above, the technology can be good, and it can be bad if misused by those who would seek to take our freedoms and right to privacy away. Let us have the choice.
By Norman Gregory Fernandez, Esq., © 2007
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Are black boxes being put on motorcycles too? This would sure help in theft recovery and possibly reduce insurance rates. I do not like “big brother” knowing where I ride and how fast I chose to go on a back country road. Is the USA the land of the free????? This is the first I have heard of a black box. Now I want to know if my SUV and truck have one. How do you find out? When did this start? How long have you known that black boxes were being put in automobiles?
How do we find out if our SUV and truck have a black box?? I do not know if I like this or not. We had a case of a old man who drove into a canal and was found three days later by the GPS in his car. I wonder why three days??? LoJack was used in Daytona at Bike Week this year to track bikes that were planted to be stolen and were recovered immediately.
The easiest way to learn about the black boxes is to search for black boxes in cars on Google! Yes there a lot of privacy issues involved to say the least.
I have not heard of the boxes being put in motorcycles yet, but that does not mean that they are not being installed.
The problem is that no one knew about this issue before.
I predict that there will be GPS in the black boxes in the future. It is inevitable.
Right now the only way I know of to track stolen bikes is through the LoJack system.
Norm
I would contact the manufacturer directly. I would also call the department of consumer affairs in your State.
Norm