Related link: http://planetbruce.com/cars#edr
The 2005 Toyota Sienna (I'm not sure about earlier models) has an Event Data Recorder (EDR) which is a black box of sorts (sans the audio recording). In the event of a crash, near crash, or airbag deployment, it records various data such as vehicle speed, engine speed, driver seat position, gear selector position, etc. It sounds like if you are in an accident, your car could be a witness against you. Their lack of an adequate privacy policy is really shocking, not to mention there isn't any disclosure of this when you buy the car (okay, I admit, I didn't read all the fine print). Read more about it on the PlanetBruce blog, here.
How do you feel about your car tracking data of this sort? Should an owner be able to prevent the disclosure of such data?
Comments (3)
Read More Entries by Bruce A. Epstein.
Hi! I too want will share the reasons in occasion of Toyota car.
The first car was toyota corolla, volume of the engine 1.5, good car, but very weak engine.
Car economy class. Car toyota camry, volume of the engine of 2.0 litres. Excellent car,
but it would be desirable even more powerfully! Now I go on car toyota Surf, the engine diesel!
That is necessary for me! 1KZ! COOL!
I just bought a Sienna after doing extensive research and never knew it featured this technology until I read it here.
While this sort of thing has been a fixture on aircraft for many years, I fear its misuse in automobiles as evidence against you (valid or otherwise) to prosecute for criminal activity ("wreckless endangerment"), in civil suits, and for denial of insurance coverage.
On the other hand, it could prove that you were driving sensibly, if that was indeed the case. The old adage of "if you aren't doing anything wrong, you shouldn't be worried about it," is not very comforting, though. Is there ever a time when speeding up and swerving is the best way to avoid a collision? How will the system record that? If you then fail to avoid, how many data analysts will be second-guessing your split-second decision?
better get used to it
There's laws being prepared in several states (as well as abroad) that would make EDRs (and far more intrusive ones than you describe here) mandatory for all vehicles (or all new vehicles).
In the Netherlands there are plans to take it even further and have the unit automatically send speed, direction, and position to police computers regularly (probably every few minutes) to facilitate fully automated speeding and parking fines to be handed out. If it sounds farfetched, a plan to test such a system was launched last year for implementation in 2005 or 2006, thinly disguised as being an experiment in driver behaviour when under observation and (for the experiment) replacing the fines in case of speeding with rewards in case of not speeding for a significant period.
It would likely be combined with fully automated toll collection as the car would report its position anyway and can thus be seen as being on a toll road at any time.
At the moment some privacy laws might need to be changed but that's never a problem if doing so leads to more government control or (even better) more income for the government for less work.