You may have heard about the recent auto accident, the worst in Wisconsin history. Dozens of cars piled up and started a bonfire when they crashed in the fog on Interstate 43, and 10 people died.
On the TV news last night, they said that a computer-reconstruction of the event timeline was underway. Some of the data that will be fed to that program will come from the crashed autos’ computers.
Now I am aware that all modern cars have under-hood computer/controllers, but I wasn’t aware that they logged data like an aircraft black box. And just how likely are they to survive a fire that was described as burning cars (and people) beyond recognition?
I have no idea what kind of data they can get out of them, or how it applies to accident forensics. All an airplane’s “black box” records is stuff like who pushed on the brake pedal when, and how long he held it down, so I suppose that similar information is available from the car computers.
I was watching the news yesterday and they said that newer cars have data recorders that will record things like, if the brake was pushed, if the air bag went off, if seatbelts were worn, and at least one other thing was mentioned, possibly the speed being traveled.
DDG, That “how it works” site says nothing about data storage. Without that, when the power goes off, all working data is lost, just like turning off your computer and losing everything in RAM.
But if Joey P is right, the equivalent of an aircraft black box is now available, assuming it survived the crash, in newer cars. Your description sounds like the last status of some devices is preserved, tho I doubt if it logs continuous events for the last half-hour like the ones in planes. But can you find a link that verifies this?
Certain GM (and probably other demostic manufacturer) models have “automotive black boxes”. Note that not all vehicles of a certain model come with them, and only some models. I know that some Corvettes, Camaro’s and Saabs (owned by GM) have them.
They record continously, and stop recording after a crash. The memory is 15 seconds. This means the last 15 seconds will be stored if the vehicle crashes. This memory is non-volatile, meaning it is still there even if the battery is disconnected. There are currently privacy issues being discussed in several countries because of this. In sweden the police requested the crash data from Saab for a vehicle that was involved in an accident. Sofar Saab has refused, stating that this info is only meant to be used to give input to Saab for future safety enhancements. I’m thinking it is only a matter of time before the black box data is used to determine blame.
I had no idea that such devices existed on modern autos, even those high-end models, especially if not required by law. It seemed unlikely to me that manufacturers would pay for this kind of feature if not forced to do so, and I can’t see what use they would have other than a crash.
I wonder if they are designed to provide exactly the same sort of info as on planes.
Zwede, do you you have a web cite for this info or is this only from personal knowledge and/or experience?
This has been discussed on the Boards a couple of times, and IIRC, the automakers put them into cars for the following reasons:
1.) They can better understand how people drive their car. This will let them tailor a car’s design better.
2.) It gives them more info about what happened in a crash so that they can design safer cars.
3.) It will also tell them if the owner isn’t operating the car in accord with the manufacturers instructions. (Remember in the owner’s manual where it tells you not to take the car over XX MPH for the first XXX miles? Drive too fast, and the dealer can tell you to get bent since by doing that you violated the warranty.)