the "black box"....

[LS1PUSSOUT]

well i was sitting in traffic school today, and the instructor said that all vehicles manufactured after 1996 has a little "black box" inside it. Supposedly he said that he can take that black box and it will give him an 8-10 page printout of everything the car has done since it was new like speed, whether the seatbelts have been used, rpm, and like all other kinds of parameters. I know ive taken my whole car apart pretty much and ive never seen any "black box". I know the ecu reads all that information, but it doesnt save it for viewing later. The instructor was a cop, and honestly I think he was taking us for a loop a few times

 

[Revolator]

First time I got pulled over the cop said something similar how he can check all the activity from the car speed/rpms/etc. Of course I didn't really believe that and just figured he was trying to intimidate me being it was my first time being pulled over.

I'm curious now though to see..

 

[99navert]

Yes, alot newer cars do have the dreaded "black box", here's an article about them from 2005.

Many cars have a black box - FOX16.com Little Rock, AR

 

[bit]

I was under the impression that was 2005 and up cars..........

 

[oldmodman]

Black box technology has been in use in various brands and models of cars since the late 80's. GM in 92 and Ford in 97

Most of these early types could only record for five seconds and were activated by the air bags deploying. They could only record a few sensors.

The new ones that are mandated for use in 2012 will record minutes of data and possibly hundreds of sensors. It remains to be seen if the Police will be able to pull you over and plug into you EDR and pull out all the data to use against you.

For a more complete look at EDR tech

www.maceng.com/pdfs/MEA_King_EventDataRecorders_2009a.pdf

 

[piss&vinegar]

Read about out OBDIII. Yes, black boxes do exist. I was in school a couple of years ago pursuing an automotive tech degree and one of the stories an instructor told us involved 'the black box'. IIRC, it involved a guy driving on I-285 and had a real bad wreck and basically the insurance company decided to be the first to use the data recorded by this device to use against the driver. The reason being is because people were killed and 'big time' damages were being sought. Oh, and if you love this kind of stuff being on vehicles, thank CARB.

 

[Ry_Trapp0]

OBDIII is nothing to worry about. if it really turns into an issue, the aftermarket will be right there with a solution.

 

[03DOHC]

Some ECU's record data when the air bags deploy. It is constantly recording some parameters and when the air bag deploys it saves the last few seconds of data leading up to air bag deployment.

 

[bdcardinal]

btw a dealer wont pull your black box. we had an aftermarket insurance company want us to pull info on a customers car from the "black box" to try to deny a warranty claim. the Ford scan tool couldn't pull it, and after consulting with a lawyer we keep on retainer at the dealer, we found out a court order is required to pull such info.

 

[highdensity007]

If you drive a company car, it might be connected to one of these:

Networkfleet® | GPS Tracking, Wireless Fleet Management, Remote Diagnostics

This allows the company you work for to view not only where you're at, but they can see how fast your going, what gear you're in, and how long you've been idling etc.

For example, you work for a utility company and it's summer time. You park your company vehicle in the customer's driveway and leave it running with the A/C on so that when you leave you can jump in a nice cool car instead of a hot as hell one. The box could alert your manager via cell phone that you've been idling for X amount of minutes and you're busted. That's just one example.

Big Brother is watching.

On the upside it can also diagnose mechanical/electrical problems and alert the stakeholders of the situation.

 

[GHIG RTR]

If you drive a company car, it might be connected to one of these:

Networkfleet® | GPS Tracking, Wireless Fleet Management, Remote Diagnostics

This allows the company you work for to view not only where you're at, but they can see how fast your going, what gear you're in, and how long you've been idling etc.

For example, you work for a utility company and it's summer time. You park your company vehicle in the customer's driveway and leave it running with the A/C on so that when you leave you can jump in a nice cool car instead of a hot as hell one. The box could alert your manager via cell phone that you've been idling for X amount of minutes and you're busted. That's just one example.

Big Brother is watching.

On the upside it can also diagnose mechanical/electrical problems and alert the stakeholders of the situation.

We have these in our company trucks, and they blow. Tells ya how long your idling, how fast your going. Also throws up a signal when there are more than 2 trucks at the same location. Everything to get ya in trbl, even though they said it was for SAFETY....yeah right!:nonono:

 

[canibus]

big brother is watching

 

[Blade Runner]

If you drive a company car, it might be connected to one of these:

Networkfleet® | GPS Tracking, Wireless Fleet Management, Remote Diagnostics

This allows the company you work for to view not only where you're at, but they can see how fast your going, what gear you're in, and how long you've been idling etc.

For example, you work for a utility company and it's summer time. You park your company vehicle in the customer's driveway and leave it running with the A/C on so that when you leave you can jump in a nice cool car instead of a hot as hell one. The box could alert your manager via cell phone that you've been idling for X amount of minutes and you're busted. That's just one example.

Big Brother is watching.

On the upside it can also diagnose mechanical/electrical problems and alert the stakeholders of the situation.

We have a similar setup in our company vehicles, called StreetEagle. InSight USA - StreetEagle GPS Security Systems

We also have Drive-Cams in the car.....

Driver Safety and Fleet Vehicle Safety | DriveCam Driver Risk Management


So yeah, I know what you mean about Big Brother always watching....

 

[thomas91169]

this will be in the next generation OBDIII/CAN systems.

LEO's will not be able to use it against you. Only time it will be able to be read is with a court order due to a huge accident where there are no survivors to tell the story, pretty much like a plane crash.

If you think its due to CARB you are an idiot.

 

[piss&vinegar]

After reading my post I did make it sound like I was saying that 'the black box' had to with CARB which was not my intent. What I was implying was that CARB was heavily involved with the concept of OBD. The black box is more OEM/insurance specific for determining what went wrong.

 

[fiveoh2go]

OK, so the real question is does my '03 Cobra have a "black box" tucked away somewhere?

 

[LS1PUSSOUT]

ok, so the real question is does my '03 cobra have a "black box" tucked away somewhere?

+1

 

[kirks5oh]

+1

your driving instructor is absolutely correct--the infamous 'black boxes' have been around for some time. in fact, we were able to extract information from the black box in your mustang. we determined that no racing had been done in your car--big surprise, i know. don't worry, you're in the clear. just thought i'd put your mind at ease.

 

[Wynn]

Lmao genius post ^

 

[Venomous98Cobra]

When I bought my 2009 F150, I had the option of having my "black box" satellite linked for remote checking. Freaked me out a bit but yea, was told they could check speed and braking and what not. Supposed to be able to give you times along with the data.