I am sure that many of you have heard the term “Black Box” data recorders which are usually associated with airplanes and airplane accidents.
Did you know that many manufacturers are now installing Black Box Data Recorders in Cars? probably not. Black Box data recorders have been put into cars for years now and nobody knows it, or it has been kept very low key; now you know.
Black Box data recorders in cars can give data such as speed at the time of an accident, gear position, braking position, direction of car, whether seatbelts were being worn, etc.
Obviously this type of data is huge for personal injury lawyers such as me. It can help get around the he said, she said, arguments for who as at fault in an auto accident, and get right to the root of actual fault. Many Personal Injury lawyers do not even know about Black Boxes being installed in cars.
There is one dilemma when it comes to Black Boxes in cars; your right to privacy is out the window. It can be predicted in the future that GPS enabled black boxes will allow Big Brother to track your movements, and potentially even disable your car.
You can read a couple of stories about Black Boxes in cars by clicking here, and by clicking here.
Technology can be good and bad. In the hands of the wrong people, it can be used to usurp the freedoms we so love in the United States. I say cast a weary eye on anyone who wants to use fear as a motive to get us as Americans to give up the freedoms that generations of us have fought and died for.
The least the car companies could do is to let us know if a Black Box is installed in our car, and to let us know what its capabilities are. As a matter of fact I think it should be legally mandated that we as consumers be notified by car manufactures if a Black Box is installed in our car.
Like I said above, the technology can be good, and it can be bad if misused by those who would seek to take our freedoms and right to privacy away. Let us have the choice.
By Norman Gregory Fernandez, Esq., © 2007
