JB³ said:
Good question, I would assume almost all new models (especially from the big
3) already have this. Right now in Florida the courts are deciding (or have
decided) that the data stored in the "black boxes" are the owner of the
vehicle. But a search warrant could give police access like if a death is
involved???
Actually all new cars have them now, and I think it is a good idea. Read
the story from this mornings paper posted below. Privacy my butt. Don't
kill someone and you won't lose your privacy.
Black box sends driver to jail
Court accepts evidence from car's data recorder
Thursday, April 15th, 2004
By Peter Ray
MONTREAL -- A man was sentenced to jail yesterday for dangerous driving
causing death thanks to the data recorder in his car that showed he was
driving at an excessive speed.
Eric Gauthier, now 26, was driving 131 kilometres an hour when his car
collided with another vehicle, killing Yacine Zinet and injuring a passenger
on April 19, 2001.
Gauthier was sentenced to 18 months in jail for dangerous driving and nine
months for dangerous driving causing injury but the sentences will be served
concurrently. He won't be allowed to drive for three years.
Belinda Matthey, the victim's sister, noted the black box in Gauthier's
Pontiac Sunfire helped put her mind at ease about what really happened.
"If we didn't know about the data in the black box, we would have always
thought my brother was driving fast and that he went through a red light,"
Matthey said.
Gauthier had told police that Zinet's car had run a red light, but the black
box in Gauthier's car showed he was driving between 130 and 160 km/h in a 50
km/h zone.
The trial marks the first time the data recorders have been accepted as
evidence in a Canadian courtroom, Crown prosecutor Jeannot Decarie has said.
Matthey also said it wasn't a road accident, but a criminal act that was
committed "and people have to realize they can be sentenced to prison."
"I'm glad justice has been done and I think other lives will be saved," she
added.
Christina Matthey, Zinet's mother, had mixed feelings about the jail
sentence. "Nothing can replace my son, but I think, at least, the sentence
was the maximum ever handed out in Quebec."
Pamela McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for General Motors Canada in Oshawa, Ont.,
said when the automaker first introduced the airbag system in 1973, it
included the ability to record crash-related data when the airbag is
deployed.
"All of our GM vehicles have a sensing diagnostic module," she said.
"The SDM records the condition of the vehicle and how it was operated in a
crash or near-crash event such as the engine speed, brake applications, the
throttle position, seat-belt usage, air-bag readiness and the severity of a
collision."
McLaughlin also said the information can be obtained if a warrant is issued.
McLaughlin added that all automakers have the black boxes in the majority of
their vehicles.
Defence attorney Marie-France La Haye argued the black box was an invasion
of privacy.
-- Canadian Press
