…… What data is collected by a car’s “black box?”

Dennis Olson

Dennis Olson

Chief Curmudgeon
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After my wreck, I learned that police had downloaded my car’s black box information. They did the same with the at-fault driver, and that’s how they determined fault. I recently went looking for exactly what info is recorded, but haven’t found a definitive list. So I thought I’d put the question to you all. Maybe you can help with that.

As an aside, I discovered that my 25 year old Aurora has a black box, and it does. I didn’t think cars that old had them.
 
Dennis Olson

Dennis Olson

Chief Curmudgeon
_______________
No texting and no phone use.

And I don’t do jackrabbit starts, ever. I’m a very safe driver. Before the wreck, when I’d changed insurance companies, i enrolled in their discount program where you keep a device in your car for a month or so, and it monitors your driving habits. The results determine your discount. I got their maximum discount of $135 off a 6 month renewal.
 
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Heliobas Disciple

Heliobas Disciple

TB Fanatic
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsAwdgw7nDA
Does my car have a black box, and what does it do?
Channel 3000 / News 3 Now
May 26, 2022
3 min 55 sec

Every vehicle on America's roads built after 2014 -- and many before that -- is equipped with an Event Data Recorder, also known as a "black box."

Connected to the airbag control module, it records all sorts of information if there's a crash or sudden deceleration.
 
P

Publius

TB Fanatic
Most have no idea and if you own a car that was made in the last 15 years it is more than likely the car is spying on you and transmitting data about you every time you get in it and start driving some cars will try and access your cell phone for data and transmit that info to third party's that want that info.
Now it took George W. Bush to make it law for the black box to be installed in every car made after 2014.
so it may be wise to ask about this stuff when buying a new car and most dealer sales people may know about these things as a selling point for idiots that think this stuff is great the sales people may not know the extent of the data collecting and how to disable or have it removed from the car before you buy it and take it home.
 
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subnet

subnet

Boot
Heliobas Disciple said:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsAwdgw7nDA
Does my car have a black box, and what does it do?
Channel 3000 / News 3 Now
May 26, 2022
3 min 55 sec

Every vehicle on America's roads built after 2014 -- and many before that -- is equipped with an Event Data Recorder, also known as a "black box."

Connected to the airbag control module, it records all sorts of information if there's a crash or sudden deceleration.
Click to expand...
So basically, if your vehicle has air bags, it prob has a black box
 
The Mountain

The Mountain

Here since the beginning
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The EDR holds about 30sec of data on the state of the vehicle, but only the most recent 30sec. At a minimum it's going to have steering wheel position history, pedal position/usage history, speed, wheel slip and skid (from the ABS and traction control), vehicle body yaw, roll, and pitch, information on what vehicle systems were active e.g. wipers, turn signal, cruise control, radio, phone (if connected, plus whether a call was in progress), windows up or down, sunroof open or closed, seatbelt usage, vehicle lights status, probably the climate control as well if it's automatic. Basically if there's a sensor or a control that talks through the computer, it'll have 30sec of history in the EDR.


ETA: the EDR should also record whether the navigation system was active at the time of incident and whether it was actively providing guidance, though it almost certainly won't record actual routing or destinations as that would take up much more memory.
 
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T

Thinwater

Firearms Manufacturer
Before my son retired as a homicide detective, he would get a search warrant for rental cars used by murder suspects and download their texts etc. from the radio. I retired from LEO almost 11 years ago now so all we got was driving info during traffic death investigations. It has come a long way since then.
 
N

night driver

ESFP adrift in INTJ sea
I will TRY to bring over the whole OBD parameter list. I do NOT expect the 10 pages of list to transfer.


As expected, WAY too much to bring over.


OBD-II PIDs - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

Link has an exhaustive list of what OBD saves.

​


​

 
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Publius

TB Fanatic
It's usually the police department that does the investigation and the insurance company go's with that.
Insurance companies by law have X-number of days to pay up for repairs or replacement of car, van or truck.
Not sure on other liabilities.
 
P

Publius

TB Fanatic
Ok; Old thread but son had to get a newer car so today off to dealerships to see what they have we went to a KIA dealer first as we have bought cars from them in the past and had really good service from KIA's.
Now all the used cars they had on the lot all had that dam big video screen on the dashboard.
I voiced my concerns about these devices and the salesman agreed with me but said there is no way to really disable the system. Later talking to another person in the dealership again I brought it up and and disabling it is not posable in fact he said the car will not run without it. I also added that I noticed the car stereo was integrated into it too and all factory stereos are junk yeah they make noise and after market gos way beyond what the factory stereo systems can do.
So there is no way to upgrade to a better hifi system because they want to know what your listening to.

Traveling to and from work and traveling in general and being spied on and tracked everywhere you go, this should not be forced upon us when buying any car here in the United States.
I remember Chrysler made a car that would talk to you and telling you what to do and I do not recall what model they did that with but they made a lot of them and very few sold in fact they could give the car away, yes they tried that no one wanted the car, so why is everyone is allowing them to do this to us?
You pay for all this stuff installed on the car and they give you no choice and you pay to have them spy on you in some cars they know just where you have been and the time of day it was done, how fast your going and other things about your driving and more thats really none of their business and they want to sell this info to other parity's.
 
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Warthog

Warthog

Black Out
  • Vehicle speed
  • Acceleration and deceleration speeds
  • Steering angles
  • The tilt of the vehicle
  • Throttle position
  • Whether brakes were applied
  • Force of impact
  • Airbag deployment times
  • Seat belt usage
 
Toosh

Toosh

Veteran Member
With the internet of everything devices, every street light picks up signals from every device you have. Wear a smartwatch or FitBit? It transmits your pulse, temperature, heart rate, and whatever else. Wear an automatic glucose monitor? They know what you had for breakfast. So even if your car's black box does not record a specific datapoint, the accumulation of data from all the devices tells them every time you fart.
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