JRYELLOWCORVETTE

Here is an interesting article about the Little Black Box in your Corvette and a lot of other cars and some ideas on how to control who sees what.

Lets hear your thoughts. I know there will be both Good and Bad.


http://www.komando.com/columns/28832...eep-it-private

grandpawmoses

Interesting that the 2013 Corvette has it but the 2014 does not.

BRCC

From what I understand the EDR in late 14s and 15 (Corvettes) has an extended recording time, more than the 20 sec stated in the article. Why the extended period and when it starts is unknown, but the information did come from a Chevrolet engineer at Mid America Expo.

Has anyone else heard this, if so can you provide more info ?

Larry/car

There is notification in the owners manual about the so called black box. The unit is part of the airbag control unit. I personally hate the thing. Aircraft have flight recorders and cockpit voice recorders. Both record the last thirty minutes of the aircraft's operation. Both units can be disabled from the flight deck by pulling the respective circuit breaker. The voice recorder has an erase function, a push of the button and recording is gone. I have used the cockpit voice recorder to save air traffic control instructions when a clearance was disputed, pulled the circuit breaker and I also had a copy if the need arose (hasn't yet).

billeee

I was a consulting engineer specializing in vehicle accident reconstruction and I downloaded and analyze this data for a lot of accidents. It's amazing how few people know about the black boxes which have been around for over 15 years.

The data can lead to bad conclusions if not interpreted properly. For example, in a rollover with the gas pedal held down the recorded speed can be much higher than the actual vehicle speed.

In some states the injury damages payable to a plaintiff can be reduced if they were not wearing a seat belt. The data recorder will indicate if the seat belts were in use. Another reason to buckle up.

C7VY

Does anyone know were in the C7 is the EDR located?

W88fixer

Another issue around this one is greedy states potentially using GPS to track a car from point to point and if the speed limit is exceeded, mail you a ticket.

Any state doing this is guilty of massive overreach. Don

golden2husky

Even more surprising is how many people I spoke with think these recorders are a good idea, and ignore the eroding of their right to privacy. If such data was solely used for evaluation of crash performance and the name of the owner was stripped from the data I could see the value. However, the threat really is not the government, at least not at this level. No, the major threat is from Big Business. After an accident your insurance company is going to want this information and I would not be surprised that buried somewhere in your policy is language that gives them the right to have access after an accident. Say your car is in the body shop and the adjuster arrives to evaluate the car. What is to stop him/her from retrieving that data without your permission other than that buried language in your policy that you have no choice to decline? If there are any body repair shop Forum members I'd like to hear their input on the frequency of this. I feel that I bought the car, and the recorder within, and I generated the data. Therefore it is mine and nobody should have any right to it unless I give permission to do so.

This topic has been bantered around a bit on many forums and never really gets the number of hits that other stories get, yet it is a major intrusion in our right to privacy. It never ceases to amaze me that our rights to privacy are being reduced bit by bit (no pun intended) and nobody really seems to care, especially those under 30 who seem to believe the value of technology far outweighs the intrusion and loss of hard fought for rights and freedoms. Really sad. I forgot which founding father said "He who gives up rights for a bit of security deserves neither rights or security" or something like that. Glad I still own a 1995 car that has no rat-out features.

golden2husky

EZPass and other versions of such technology already track your movements but none are used to mail tickets other than for toll plaza speeding. If you think about it, the old paper card that toll takers used to hand out could be used to calculate the speed of the car, but it was an anonymous car. So the state would know average speeds and times but that was it. Today, such systems are used to calculate speeds but they are tied to a toll tag, and hence the owner. Where I live, that very data is used to calculate average speeds and this is how the highway signs that say "average time to exit X is Y minutes" work. Toll tag readers are installed the length of the road and grab your location from your toll tag. When you pass the next reader, your tag is pinged again. The aggregate for all of this is what generates the information for the "time-to" signs. In NY for example, the owner information is stripped from the data so allegedly there is no database that tracks the driving habits of any particular driver. While I doubt that this is entirely true, the rules were written so that such data could not be used in court. And you do have the option of keeping your toll tag in the special bag that keeps it from being read. This does open the door for a massive data collection on driver behavior. How much value does this has for the state? Not sure, but your insurance company would love to have it and surcharge you accordingly.

rcooper

This is an interesting thread. Although I am a strong believer in personal privacy, I also believe that there is a need for information gathering that benefits. There is a fine line here that can be crossed over easily, with potential for unmitigated infringement on the individuals rights.
I really believe that the owner of the car is the owner of the information in the " black box " and should have the right to protect the information contained within. But in the advent of a collision that information should always be allowed to surface for real fault.

dvilin

Well stated and level headed.

W88fixer

Year after year of late, the government has given me no reason to trust them. Having said that, EVDRs can be used for good but as anyone knows the possibility of abuse is there.

A few years ago, a spoiled 18 or 19yr old was driving Dad’s Vette doing something like 80 in a 35 or 40mph zone in a residential area at night in Chicago.

He hit and killed a pedestrian in a crosswalk. Wealthy father tried his best to get his son off.

GM downloaded the data for the prosecution clearly showing reckless driving/endangerment. If I remember correctly, there was no effort on the part of the kid to use the brakes if he was even paying attention. Kid was jailed as he well deserved.

In such cases as this, I think the “black box” is useful. Don