Big Bother is coming to your car....very soon!

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Warborg

Goliath Tigerfish
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Sep 2, 2009
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http://autos.yahoo.com/news/automotive-black-box-mandatory-september-1-2014-150043524.html

Automotive Black Box Mandatory by September 1, 2014

You’ve probably heard about the forthcoming automotive black boxes. These “automotive data recorders” are able to let government and insurance personnel determine the conditions leading up to an accident. Whether you like this idea or not, pretty soon, it’s going to be mandatory in all cars. As of September 1, 2014, 100 percent of new cars and trucks will be required to be equipped with this feature.

Now, before you write your local congressman, it should be noted that 96 percent of new cars have this feature. It is more of a pleasantry for most car companies, and the new regulation would effect the four percent that do not yet have an automotive data recorder.

Sure, this automotive black box thing may seem like a case of Big Brother getting all up in your business, but remember; you can always buy an older car. Event data recorders have been in use since the 1970s, but mostly in the trucking industry. Through the years, more and more consumer automakers jumped on board, and while you might be skeptical, it will help get to the bottom of what caused an accident.

Our thought is, if this gets rid of the “he said-she said” aspect of accidents. Time and resources wasted by insurance companies will go down, and potentially insurance rates will go down…actually, that won’t happen. Oh well, get ready for Big Brother, or make peace with buying an older car.


It's only a matter of a very short time before Insurance companies demand a 6 month access to this to charge you accordingly based on your driving habits.
 
no biggie really, this is only for the areas that aren't covered by the ever present city camera networks.
does it really matter if you're being watched by 2+ observation points instead of one?
 
Hopefully it will eliminate texting and driving...
I don't see it going that far. It will most likely record the speeds you were driving, the amount of braking applied, how hard you accelerated and the amount applied to steering. Basically how many near misses, close calls, how rough you drove and speeding.

If you were going just barely over the speed limit when someone else hits you(their fault)... you will get a ticket too.
 
The key is it wont be used anymore than they use it now... to see how an accident was caused. Now the gps that progressive uses to determine a "safe driver"... that could potentially be bad. Also, I work at a buy here pay here dealership and was impressed with the gps system we use to monitor and recover vehicles
 
I've told myself that I would never get this. But thinking back to my stolen truck which was never found, Had I had OnStar...it would have been recovered.

Yeah I laughed when OnStar came out. No thanks, I don't need the Guberment tracking me (not that I'm anything special mind you).

When I bought my Jeep 10 years ago it was equipped with lojack. I ripped it out. :)
 
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