Black boxes are becoming increasingly common in commercial trucks and in passenger vehicles. A number of people stridently object to the idea of having one of these telltale electronic data recorders (EDRs) in their vehicle. They object even more strongly to the notion that so many people might be able to extract and read that data, while the vehicle owner usually cannot.
The ordinary “black box” really doesn’t raise much in the way of privacy concerns as far as this Tomball accident lawyer is concerned. The ordinary EDR, while it records data constantly, also constantly re-records over the preceding data. It only saves the data in the event of a triggering impact or an airbag deployment to prevent an injury. And it only saves the last 15 seconds of data that preceded the triggering event. The data it saves consists of technical data.
Your speed prior to the event.
Whether you applied the brakes, and how much you applied them.
Whether you applied the gas pedal, and how much you applied it.
The direction you were steering.
Changes in speed and direction.
Whether you were wearing your seat belt or not.
And that’s pretty much it. Your Tomball, TX accident lawyer points out that while this data might limit your ability to shift the blame for an accident if you were at fault, it can also be invaluable to you to demonstrate the other drivers’ fault when you weren’t. The data’s main purpose is to help in the reconstruction of an accident to determine what happened. An ordinary EDR won’t help an angry spouse catch a cheating spouse. It won’t give away your sneaked trip to a friend’s party or to a big sale at the mall.
OnStar, on the other hand, can do this and more. OnStar is the “Big Brother is watching you, knows what you had for breakfast, and thinks you should be dieting” version of the EDR. Increasing numbers of cars come equipped with OnStar. Your new car might have a one-year subscription to OnStar included for free with your purchase.
The OnStar device can help you with directions, contact authorities in the event of an accident, and provide several other helpful services. If you let your subscription run out at the end of the year, OnStar doesn’t stop functioning. It does stop providing you the additional helpful services. But it still records your location and driving data, and can receive and transmit. It even includes a sneaky feature whereby authorities can disable your vehicle. Though authorities as yet seem understandably reluctant to use this feature.
Continue to Part 2.