Event Data Recorder (EDR) in Cars

Via komotv.com -

When you hear about "black boxes" you probably picture airplanes that have been in horrible accidents.

The black box is the first thing investigators look for. The boxes record cockpit communications and airplane information, and can often tell investigators what lead to the disaster.

But few people know that black boxes aren't just in airplanes. They're in cars too. And chances are good there's one in your car, but you can't lift the hood to see it.

But if you get in an accident the information could be used against you.

There are hundreds of vehicle collisions every day. Sometimes the cause is obvious, and other times its not. Drivers often get into a blame game and the accident investigators are left to sort out who is at fault.

But your car's black box can help them do just that.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, more than half of all new cars now carry a so-called black box. The device records how a car was being driven just seconds before impact. The black box, which is really silver, is buried in the car's underbelly and incorporated into the airbag system.

Car makers call it an EDR, event data recorder, or a CDR, crash data recorder. They collect crash data to help design safer cars.

But cops and the insurance industry want the black box data too.

That's exactly why the American Civil Liberties Union has a problem with the black box. "It's my information not public information," said Doug Klunder, privacy director of the ACLU's Seattle chapter. He insists a black box amounts to a spy in your car.

You may have the right to remain silent, but your car just might talk.

"That's very true. Wow! You be quiet now, poor thing," said Carol Corley as she stroked the door of her Ford wagon. NHTSA says Ford, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Subaru, General Motors, Isuzu, and Suzuki vehicles all have Event Data Recorders.

The black boxes record what happened in the critical seconds before, during and after a crash. They even record near-crashes.

The so called black box is like having a silent passenger that you never but witnesses your every move. In the event of a crash it knows if you were speeding, whether you're wearing a seat belt, and if you hit the brakes.

"I had no idea it was in there," said John LaForest. The Olympia teacher has a black box in his car, but didn't know it, until we told him.

Not one driver I interviewed knew they had a silent witness on board. Some cars have had them since the late 90s, but the devices didn't become prevalent until until 2001.

To get the black box talking, investigators just have to download the data. They can do that right at the scene of a crash.

"There is more and more of this hidden data collection that people don't know about which is even scarier than Big Brother," says Klunder.

State Patrol Detective Sgt. Jerry Cooper said troopers use the information as part of their investigations. "We're gathering the data as the result of a crash, we're not gathering it to see what people's driving habits are on the highway," he said.