The National Highway Traffic Safety Board is proposing that
the event data recorder be mandatorily installed during the manufacturing of
all new vehicles beginning on September 1, 2014. Also known as the Black Box,
it is said to have the capability of improving safety technology because it
will be able to detect design problems and safety hazards within any vehicle.
Although
it may be improving safety on U.S. Roadways some are raising the question that
it may be crossing privacy barriers. The Black Box can detect all of the
following; speed, brake pedal position, location of vehicle, if the passengers
are wearing a seatbelt, and if air bags were deployed during a crash.
Insurance
companies, lawyers, and police departments seem to be in the highest benefits
of this new device. Insurance companies will be able to increase or lower your
rates depending on the data provided to them by the device. Lawyers will be
able to provide more significant data in wreck-less driving or DWI cases, and
policemen will be able to quickly note the speed a vehicle was going before
being involved in a crash. The Center for Auto Safety seems to provide
sufficient information that the data recorders will in fact be benefiting more
than anything. In all, the new device is going to approve the safety of most
drivers on the roadway.
