Federal Auto Safety propose a rule to make black box standard in new cars

Citing privacy concerns, a lot people have started questioning Federal Auto Safety’s proposal to have black boxes as a must in all new U.S. vehicles. According to what they have suggested, new vehicles are to have black boxes installed by September 1st, 2014.

This is suggested in order to help understand how drivers respond in a crash and to know if key feature systems operate properly. The auto safety authority and vehicle manufacturer can use this data to make vehicles much safer.

But there are privacy concerns for many people since the states in the U.S. have a set of laws over who can access data stored in black boxes. Some either allow law enforcement agencies to access it at the accident site without a warranty whereas some require court order. The boxes can’t be turned off/disabled and require special software to access the data.
Many experts also warned that black boxes aren’t always foolproof as electrical surges can scramble the data collected by them and hence sensors end up recording faulty/inaccurate information.

Although manufacturers have insisted to clarify privacy reasons to NHTSA, the decision will be made by Congress.

Source: Yahoo Auto