Anyone know more about the EVENT DATA RECORDER ?

SeattleLion · 10-05-2010, 03:23 PM

My Toyota Prius had a data recorder and in the manual it said that Toyota could access the data to defend itself in a civil law suit. Sheesh.

There's no question that as technology and particularly, communications technology gets cheaper, there will be a giant temptation to enforce all sorts of behavior (like driving) using sensors that report to the mother ship.

Like most new technologies, the law has yet to catch up with the implications of these new "opportunities". It seems to me that we need some protection from EDR recordings. I certainly didn't see anything in my purchase agreement that gave Nissan the right to record my use of the vehicle.

This has come up before when some car rental companies began putting black boxes into their cars that used cell service to report speeding. There was a suit over this and the rental company lost. So now they just put a notice of this device into the rental contract and can charge surcharges for exceeding the "contractual" speed.

There are commercial devices that record continuously and allow download into a USB dongle. These are being marketed to parents to allow them to supervise their teenage children's driving habits. It also report the gps location of the car so that parents can also know where their kids went.

My point is that the technology to keep track of us and our driving behavior exists now and is pretty inexpensive. EDR's are really the least of our worries. However, I sure hate that there is a data recorder in my car and would love to get rid of it. Of course I won't. I think that if I am in a crash, the EDR would probably contribute little help to the insurance companies or the cops. There is too much other evidence available.

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10-05-2010, 03:23 PM	#24 (permalink)
SeattleLion Base Member Join Date: Sep 2010 Location: Seattle WA Posts: 226 Drives: '13 Mustang GT Prem. Rep Power: 234	My Toyota Prius had a data recorder and in the manual it said that Toyota could access the data to defend itself in a civil law suit. Sheesh. There's no question that as technology and particularly, communications technology gets cheaper, there will be a giant temptation to enforce all sorts of behavior (like driving) using sensors that report to the mother ship. Like most new technologies, the law has yet to catch up with the implications of these new "opportunities". It seems to me that we need some protection from EDR recordings. I certainly didn't see anything in my purchase agreement that gave Nissan the right to record my use of the vehicle. This has come up before when some car rental companies began putting black boxes into their cars that used cell service to report speeding. There was a suit over this and the rental company lost. So now they just put a notice of this device into the rental contract and can charge surcharges for exceeding the "contractual" speed. There are commercial devices that record continuously and allow download into a USB dongle. These are being marketed to parents to allow them to supervise their teenage children's driving habits. It also report the gps location of the car so that parents can also know where their kids went. My point is that the technology to keep track of us and our driving behavior exists now and is pretty inexpensive. EDR's are really the least of our worries. However, I sure hate that there is a data recorder in my car and would love to get rid of it. Of course I won't. I think that if I am in a crash, the EDR would probably contribute little help to the insurance companies or the cops. There is too much other evidence available.