'Black Box' in your car is recording your driving fellows

[Peter Solarik]

Last night a very interesting subject was covered in Canadian documentary show, the 'MARKETPLACE'.
The cars which are equiped with Air Bags record on factory installed 'Black Boxes' the speed etc of the car that is involved in an accident. THe Marketplace done extensive research on it.
They showed one example how the 'Black Box' can help the police and insurance establish the rate of speed of the car that was involved in head on collision with another car. The one surviving driver claimed that he was going a speed limit, no faster. However, when the police removed the black box and downloaded the information from it, it showed that this surviving driver was going 160 km in 50 km zone limit !
Not that I found anything wrong for police and insurance to be able to convince tha bad guys. There were (at that show) some advocates of protection of privacy who vehemently claimed that this Black Box will and is invasion of privacy.
What was also interesting, the Marketplace show phoned various GM delaers accross Canada and they did not even knew that their cars are equiped with black boxes..
Guys, what is your opinion on this?
Regards
Peter Solarik
London
Ont.
Canada

[RABarrett]

This is a tough question to answer. On one hand, I am tired of the excessive no fault insurance procedures in place in many areas. I would rather the jerk causing the accident get a ticket and pay for the damage he causes. On the other hand, on too many occasions the cops couldn't find their asses with both hands in the daylight with a hunting dog and simply blamed the guy with the insurance for the accident, allowing a rapid settlement. The priblem here is not that the info is available, the problem is that the people interpretting the results cannot do their job. Ray

[Flatrater]

I have to add some info to this! The black box as you call it is called the SDM module or the Senseing Diagnostic module. It will only record like the 30 seconds prior to the air bag deploying. The module will not record unless you blow your airbags.

[RABarrett]

Having worked closely with several GM dealers as well as being an electronics instructor for the Ford Motor Company, I can say unequivocally, that these electronic ideas are only the tip of the iceberg. There has been talk for years about allowing the gov't to control a vehicle via satellite. These ideas pass between engineers constantly. The concept of invasion of privacy is a constant pivot point. Though Flatrater is correct regarding the deployment of airbags is the triggering concept, the time is now to become aware of the possibilities and act on your conscience. I cannot say whether this idea is a good one. This is one of the situations that requires individual thought and independent decision making. Knowing that, for example, the OnStar, and the Ford systems are capable of constantly monitoring a vehicle's performance, and knowing how Ford and GM owns more than most of the marques, we can, at this point, consider the concept universal. It is rare that a corporation such as GM or Ford develops its ideas in a vacuum, and without outside assistance, such as from DelPhi. For the unitiated, DelPhi is a combination of Delco and Philco, the electronics side of GM and Ford respectively. Any conclusions drawn from this are your own, however, just because you do not choose to believe it, does not mean it is not true. Though "Enemy of the State" was entertaining, it was a wake up call as well. Food for thought... Ray

[chuckmentz]

Can/Would OnStar monitor a car that does not have a paid subscription? If so couldn't this be disabled?

I don't have Onstar but that is primarily because I don't have a vehicle equipped for that service. I am not sure if I would get it. Not because I think it is *evil*, mostly because I am cheap and don't want to pay for annual subscriptions for services.

[Hypsi87]

Originally Posted by RABarrett

Having worked closely with several GM dealers as well as being an electronics instructor for the Ford Motor Company, I can say unequivocally, that these electronic ideas are only the tip of the iceberg. There has been talk for years about allowing the gov't to control a vehicle via satellite. These ideas pass between engineers constantly. The concept of invasion of privacy is a constant pivot point. Though Flatrater is correct regarding the deployment of airbags is the triggering concept, the time is now to become aware of the possibilities and act on your conscience. I cannot say whether this idea is a good one. This is one of the situations that requires individual thought and independent decision making. Knowing that, for example, the OnStar, and the Ford systems are capable of constantly monitoring a vehicle's performance, and knowing how Ford and GM owns more than most of the marques, we can, at this point, consider the concept universal. It is rare that a corporation such as GM or Ford develops its ideas in a vacuum, and without outside assistance, such as from DelPhi. For the unitiated, DelPhi is a combination of Delco and Philco, the electronics side of GM and Ford respectively. Any conclusions drawn from this are your own, however, just because you do not choose to believe it, does not mean it is not true. Though "Enemy of the State" was entertaining, it was a wake up call as well. Food for thought... Ray

Thats why everything I will own for performance will be pre OBD-II

[Ace$nyper]

amen to that

[Logandiagnostic]

We actually have the equipment that can recover the black box crash data. The 'black box' is really the airbag SDM module. It records the last 5 seconds of vehicle data prior to a accident event.

On this website you can see the Vetronix CDR module, a SDM module, sample crash data, a list of SDM locations in GM cars etc...

http://www.airbagcrash.com

If you have any questions about the system we will try to answer them.

[shenanniegan]

How does it know to start recording info 5 seconds before a crash? It can't know that it is going to happen...or does it have some kind of memory that allows it to record it after the fact?

[maxwedge]

Welcome to AF. Please check the dates before posting this is four years old