Black Box Technology & The Data It Can Recover About Your Car

Don’t get alarmed yet, but did you know you may have a black box in your car? When most people think of automobiles and technology, they probably think of iPod connections, hard drives to store and play mp3’s, a built-in GPS, and other cool techno-gadgets you might have in your car, right? Hardcore geeks and those in the upper crust might think of lane-sensing and rear-end collision avoidance technology that comes in the latest luxury cars. Some of these things might be gimmicky, some are essential, but many change with the market response and our daily lives, just as the…dare I say…8-track and and cassette tapes did.

But there is one technology which many people are yet unaware of, which will not only be here for the duration, but will almost certainly evolve to become more of a “big brother” part of our driving experiences into the future. That technology is sometimes known as the black box. Everyone knows about the black boxes in airplanes, right? It’s the micro-processor-based storage device that can be retrieved and accessed following a crash. Its data can be analyzed to determine just what the heck happened and why.

Little do most know, but similar black boxes are found in almost all modern-day automobiles as well. Each manufacturer uses its own algorithm to record and store data; and the recordings are triggered by a number of different roadway scenarios. What does that mean for you and me? Well, following a significant accident, it is very possible, if not likely, that a technician can access that black box in your car or truck and tell exactly how fast you were going, if you used your brakes, and even if you were distracted by eating a cheeseburger at the time of the accident.

Okay, maybe the cheeseburger thing will come in the next generation, but you get the idea. Black boxes are here to stay, and they’ll bring to light many of our roadway sins following an accident. Here’s a photo of some of the data I bet you didn’t know could be recovered. Is this a good thing or an invasion of privacy? You decide.