Vehicle Black Boxes

George Orwell's 1984 and Big Brother are lurking around your car and you don't know it. I knew some cars had black boxes, but I didn't know that 60% of cars manufactured today have them. I wonder if it started with the mysterious Audi 5000 that did, but didn't accelerate of its own free will....

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is requiring car manufacturers to disclose that they have a black box in a specific car by 2011. That's still 5 years from now.

What is a black box??? The device collects vehicle data related mostly to...crashes and incidents. Was the seat belt attached...did the airbag deploy...how fast was the driver going...was the accelerator pedal depressed...was the brake pedal depressed...

In the future, this data *could* be used in court. Speeding, sobriety, manufacturer liability, accident at-fault, etc. Be safe and be careful....privacy issues at work!

auto auto news auto-news automobile automobiles automotive autos car car buying carbuying car-buying car sales car dealer cardealer cars dealer dealership dfwcarfinder trendsvehicle vehicles car advice car purchase car selling car price car shopper used cars black box george orwell 1984 big brother audi national highway traffic safety administration pictures privacy