Congress wants to install black boxes on Cars

[SMWS6TA]

All new cars would have to be equipped with "black boxes" that record performance data and federal safety regulators would be granted the authority to order immediate recalls under newly proposed auto-safety legislation being considered by Congress.

The draft of a bill was released Thursday by one of the House committees investigating Toyota's massive recalls for unintended acceleration in its vehicles. Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the House commerce committee, and Sen. John D. Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), chair of the Senate commerce committee, have said they intend to collaborate on automobile safety legislation this year.

The draft contains a wide array of provisions. Some require new safety features, such as the black boxes -- called event data recorders -- and brake override systems that allow a driver to stop a car even when the throttle is stuck open.

Other elements of the bill give the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration more power to crack down on automakers that break the rules.

"Our initial thoughts on this are that Congress have given us a legislative vehicle that has come fully loaded with all the options," said Gloria Bergquist, a vice president at Auto Alliance, the industry trade association. "We are going to look at each one of these and ask: Where are we going to get the safety enhancements?"

"It's a terrific bill," said Joan Claybrook, a safety advocate and former NHTSA administrator. "It tackles a lot of the key issues."

The bill would create a "vehicle safety user fee," to be paid by manufacturers on each vehicle. The money would supplement NHTSA's budget. The fee begins at $3 per vehicle and increases to $9 after three years.

The bill also increases the fines that NHTSA can seek from an automaker. In the Toyota case, NHTSA could have fined Toyota $13.8 billion for failing to notify regulators of a defect, but a statutory cap cut the penalty to $16.4 million, agency officials said.
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The bill does not allow for criminal penalties for automakers that knowingly violate safety laws, however, a sanction that advocates said was necessary to ensure compliance.

"Recent vehicle recalls underscore the need to ensure the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has the resources, expertise, and authority it needs to protect consumers from vehicle safety defects," Waxman said in a statement.

Link:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...042904700.html

[allbaugh_04]

Horrible idea.

Thanks big bro, we don't need u

[Z28Thunder]

But cars with airbags have long had onboard computers with the sensors and software necessary to determine within 1/100 of a second that you're in a crash; that's how cars know when to deploy the bags. These computers, called sensing and diagnostic modules, are located inside the transmission hump, behind the dashboard, or under the seat, and constantly collect and process data on the car's acceleration or deceleration. Airbag-equipped cars have had SDMs since 1974.

Beginning in the 1999 model year, though, GM upgraded SDMs to include an event data recorder. The newer SDMs track the car's speed (from the speedometer), engine RPM, the exact position of the gas pedal, and whether or not the brake pedal was pressed, among other statistics. The SDM keeps the previous five seconds' worth of this data in its onboard memory and, if the airbags are deployed, saves the most recent five seconds as a snapshot of events leading up to a possible collision. Ford and Isuzu added similar features to some models in this decade. Santa Barbara-based Vetronix sells a $2,500 "crash data recovery" gadget that will download the logs from these computers (the company lists what years and models it works with, and what data is recoverable).

Auto engineers designed and installed event-logging SDMs to study accidents and improve their cars' safety, but the data from the boxes has also proven admissible in court. This June, a Florida driver was sentenced to 30 years in prison based on the data in his car's SDM, which showed him to be barreling down a suburban street at 114 mph seconds before he struck and killed two teenagers in another car.

[Spaz]

damn... z28thunder beat me to it... nothing new except the govt trying to get involved with shit they shouldn't even be worrying about...

[rbob93]

If they would only come up with a device that renders a cell phone inoperable while the vehicle is in motion......

[wheeliE-maxx]

New cars are gay. They'll pass this with some emotional appeal about catching dangerous street racers or some shit

[67CamaroRSSS]

The more crap they cram into newer cars the more I like the simplicity of my 67...

[FasstChevys]

They already do in some Chevrolets..........On-Star.

[gd1996]

I have no plans to buy a new car anyways. In time we'll all have chips implanted into us so they can track our every movement.

[86 IROC-Z]

New cars are gay. They'll pass this with some emotional appeal about catching dangerous street racers or some shit

I highly doubt the passing of any legislation has an effect on the sexual preferences of inanimate objects.

[SMWS6TA]

ppl for get that your GPS devices can be used against you also.

[wheeliE-maxx]

I highly doubt the passing of any legislation has an effect on the sexual preferences of inanimate objects.

Right. New cars are terrible then

[86 IROC-Z]

Right. New cars are terrible then

Actually they are safer, more powerful, and more efficient than ever before.

[KahanaReef]

The more crap they cram into newer cars the more I like the simplicity of my 67...

Exactly my thoughts on the subject

[KahanaReef]

Actually they are safer, more powerful, and more efficient than ever before.

Meh...

[86 IROC-Z]

Meh...

I meant to add "inb4 toyota"

[wheeliE-maxx]

Actually they are safer, more powerful, and more efficient than ever before.

Power gains are offset by weight gain due to safety and new features. Efficiency is not better than ever

[justinmc978]

If they would only come up with a device that renders a cell phone inoperable while the vehicle is in motion......

this.

[BdAsBrd01]

If they would only come up with a device that renders a cell phone inoperable while the vehicle is in motion......

Agree x10. Already shitty driver + using cell phone (or texting)= accident (your shit being torn up by someone else because they were acting stupid)

damn... z28thunder beat me to it... nothing new except the govt trying to get involved with shit they shouldn't even be worrying about...

Absolutely

The more crap they cram into newer cars the more I like the simplicity of my 67...

Couldn't agree more

[cuervo25_1]

It could be useful though. Think of it like this, if your car fucks up and you lose control the box will show the data that is what happened and you won't get tiketed,fined and insurance rates go up. I also would like to se them put something in the speed limit signs and the vehicles to make sure there is no speeding. That will leave more officers open to deal with real crime.