(National Transportation Safety) Board Recommends Black Boxes for Cars

[Khephra]

WASHINGTON -- The National Transportation Safety Board on Tuesday recommended for the first time that the federal government require passenger vehicles to be equipped with black boxes that record speed, seat belt use, braking and other factors.

The safety board's recommendation arose from its investigation into the July 16, 2003 farmers market crash in Santa Monica, Calif. Safety investigators were unable to interview the elderly driver who stepped on the gas pedal instead of the brake, plowing into the open-air market, killing 10 and injuring 63.

The board concluded that investigators could have gained a better scientific understanding of the driver's behavior had his 1992 Buick LeSabre been outfitted with an event data recorder.

"We believe very strongly that vehicles should have a black box," said NTSB chairman Ellen Engleman Conners.

http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-vehicle-black-boxes,0,163705.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines

[Caution]

1. ummm...screw that

i can just see it now. get pulled over once, cop hooks cable up to black box and issues 35 tickets for previous speeding offenses, 85 time driving without a seatbelt and driving with broken brake lights and driving with broken turn signals (to start). Thanks, but no thanks. This is pandering to the insurance companies, nothing more, nothing less.

[Flint-oid]

3. Pandering to advertisers?

Pehaps it's those radio advertisers trying to figure out who is listening to what and when

[newyawker99]

7. Hi mrsuomela!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[0007]

5. ....and that's not counting the times you curse and bad mouthed

the Commander in Chief and spoke of the evil things you'd like to do with the little mustache.

[ixion]

2. yeah, good luck

conservatives speed just as much as 'liberals'... so I think you'll see alot of resistance to something like this.

[customerserviceguy]

8. From what I've read

lurking over at Freeperland, they are indeed worried about this. Mostly for religious reasons, mark of the beast, 666, all that drivel. Same crap I heard when UPC codes started showing up on food in the supermarket.

But even a combination of liberals and conservatives will not be enough to stop this from happening. Cops, insurance companies, car manufacturers looking to escape blame for making faulty vehicles, etc., all are going to conspire to get these in cars.

Look for people who are experts at "fixing" the black boxes to show up. It's happened with our desktop computers, why not with our cars?

[TaleWgnDg]

16. yup, police totalitarianism is a Libertarian issue too . . .

indeed . . . tis right up their alley, if ya will; those pesky Libertarians hate the government breathing down their necks as does ANY civil libertarian!

:dem:

[Ravy]

4. I heard that they already have these in 4x4s...

Throughout America, the last words before a fatal accident were "Oh, my God!".

Except in Texas, where the last words were "Hold my beer and WATCH THIS!"

[Chimpeach]

14. LOL!

Now watch this drive! Ha ha, pun intended.

This has BIG BROTHER written all over it. Screw that.

[TaleWgnDg]

17. ROFLMAO !!! oooops, excuse me, Texas Dems! n/t

[el_gato]

6. and after that GPS units and a Camera

Big brother spying on you at all times

Better wake up America before it's too late.

[pinniped]

9. Some already do, Camaros, Corvettes, etc...

of course it's called something other than a black-box.

http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:l4vvaDXNwhwJ:www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/edr-site/uploads/GMs_Black_Box--Corvette.pdf+corvette+black+box&hl=en

[HuckleB]

10. The article in my local paper notes that 65-90 percent of 2004 models...

already have "some sort of recording ability," with 15 percent of them having data recorders.

Hmm. This might just increase the value of older vehicles!

[tlcandie]

11. They will somehow wrap this with making parents feel safer when

their teenagers are out driving around, so there is a record of what they did and/or didn't do!

That will be one way to sell it. Another is insurance making it a requirement or giving insurance breaks if you have one installed...like security alarms.

[stickdog]

12. Just imagine the reaction if they recommended this for every GUN!

Big Brother is driving you.

[Moderator]

13. Kick

Kick

[HuckleB]

15. What a great idea! I'll never be held responsible for an accident again!

Made you look! (Though, of course, I should never, ever be held responsible for any accident. I would never do anything wrong on the road.)

:)

I'm actually shocked that there isn't more of an outcry over this one. Why is that? I get the feeling that this will just happen, since so few seem to be reacting to it.

[TaleWgnDg]

18. okay. now, "isn't this SPECIAL?!!"

I can foresee it now . . . the slippery slope conjured up by a "little black box" affixed to your vehicle w/ or w/o your knowledge. What is to stop, say, the cops from getting the info in a criminal case? How about your insurance company? Or anyone else in a civil case? And, who is to say WHAT collected data is included in this "little black box?" now or in the future? . . . the scope of the data that is? hhmmmmmm . . . ?

Of course, you could track your kid's whereabouts w/ one of these things? The Daily Show w/ John Stewart would have great lines about this stuff.

In all seriousness, I foresee the ACLU involved in these cases in the not too distant future, or maybe they are involved already? Sounds like a matter that would draw them in u/ several constitutional issues, e.g., due process, privacy, liberty, 4th amendment, 5th amendment, and on and on . . .

Cameras on the street corners, atop buildings, "black boxes" affixed to your vehicles . . . where are we going?