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J.P.
Member
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Posted: Wed Apr 13th, 2005 12:45 pm |
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Black Box
Tuesday, April 5, 2005by George Klass
Somebody is watching you, and they are taking down notes about how you drive.
There you are, cruising around in your new car, feeling young again, slamming her through the gears, and peeling rubber every now and then from the stop light, just like you did when you were in high school.
But, would you be doing that if you knew that the Highway Patrol or the local police was watching your every move? I doubt it. In fact, I'm sure that you would have been checking your rearview mirror fairly frequently during one of your "thrill" moments.
Here is a little known fact. Between 65% and 90% of all the new cars and trucks sold, have a little "black box" installed at the factory, according to the National Highway Transportation Administration (NHTA). According to the director of the Collision Safety Institute, which researches and investigates auto and train crashes, black boxes were introduced in cars along with air bags, in the 1970's.
So, what are these black boxes doing? They are storing information on how you drive, how fast you go and whether you are using your seat belts or not. Insurance companies say that this data is useful if and when you have an accident, for "investigative and data gathering purposes only", of course.
There are some people, on the other hand, that fear that this is a little too much like being under surveillance by "big brother" and are concerned that the information could (and will) be used in court, against you. It could also be used, theoretically, to assess and track your driving habits, especially when it comes time to figure out your new insurance rates. And if you think that the insurance companies (or the government) won't be able to access this data unless they "plug in" to your car, guess again. Many cars are actually sending the data out AS YOU DRIVE. Subscription services such as OnStar, LoJack and similar global positioning systems have the capability to transmit the data to whoever is willing to pay for it.
Most people are unaware that these devices are in their vehicles, or that the information recorded could be used against them, or that there are no regulations regarding who actually owns this information.
To make this "we are watching you" scenario a little more scary, OnStar has admitted that, theoretically, they could be forced by the government to record or monitor conversations taking place inside "a suspect's" vehicle. Not just conversations going across the OnStar system, but everything being said inside the vehicle, since the OnStar system is basically an open mic.
The Connecticut Supreme Court just upheld a ban on a car rental company's use of a global positioning satellite system to track customer's and fine them for speeding when they returned the car. The customer's were being billed an additional $150 to the rental car company. The GPS was able to isolate the exact position of the vehicle, which road it was traveling on, the speed limit on that stretch of road, and the vehicle's speed.
There are those in government that have serious concerns about the privacy issues that this new technology is bringing with it. Some states are drafting bills requiring that buyers be told up front if their new vehicle is equipped with these black boxes. Other states are looking at prohibiting the data from being used in court without a court order. In essence, using this data to "testify against yourself" could have Constitutional repercussions.
Personally, none of this is much of a concern to me. I always wear my seat belt and I never speed or do burnouts. I also have some beachfront property for sale, convenient to downtown Phoenix.
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