Computer World: "Busted! Your car's black box is spying"

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seanhaight
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Computer World: "Busted! Your car's black box is spying"

Post by seanhaight »

http://blogs.computerworld.com/20109/bu ... u_in_court
When you are car shopping, how many times has a salesman pitched the 15 to 30 specific data elements constantly being collected by the car's black box as you drive? Probably never, but there's electronic data everywhere and that includes your car collecting digital evidence which might turn into the star witness to testify against you. You may not think about or be aware of your vehicle's event data recorder (EDR), yet it is constantly recording evidence like a plane's "black box" and is being used after a crash to explain why it happened.

Way back in 2006, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) mandated that all new vehicles be equipped with EDR "black boxes" by the 2013 model year [PDF]. 85% of U.S. vehicles now have EDR devices that "must capture and preserve at least 15 types of crash data, including pre-crash speed, engine throttle, changes in forward velocity and airbag deployment times." Some capture 30 types of data.

A politician was caught speeding, not by the cops but by his totaled car's black box. The police thought the wreck was a result of icy roads, but Massachusetts Lt. Gov. Timothy Murray wanted to silence political opponents and had hoped the e-evidence collected from his 2007 Ford Crown Victoria EDR would be his unshakable alibi. It was unshakable all right, but it proved Murray wasn't wearing a seatbelt, was "going 75 mph on an interstate marked for 65 mph," and "in the final few seconds before the crash, Murray pressed the accelerator, and the car's speed rose to 99 mph; it was traveling 106 mph by the time it hit the rock ledge." Busted! (Continued)
http://blogs.computerworld.com/20109/bu ... u_in_court
Sean Haight, PhD

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