Although the news isn’t directly related to the UK I thought this information was important since, eventually, most trends from the US follow in the UK after a few years.
By next month, every mew car in the U.S. will be required to have a black box installed on the vehicle.
This is a similar in concept to the black boxes used in commercial aircraft for decades. The boxes are expected to record information about speed, seat belt use, steering input and brake application giving a snapshot of what may have happened leading up to an accident after the data has been analysed.
Brian Everest, GM’s senior manager of field incidents, told Wired: “In the early nineties we could get diagnostic data, seatbelt use and crash severity.
“Currently, we can get crash severity, buckle status, precrash data related to how many events the vehicle may have been in and brake application.
“It’s about trying to understand what a particular system’s performance did before a crash. In a great many cases, we can use data to understand whether it had any merit to it or not.”
Would this implementation be welcomed within the UK? Let MJP know your thoughts.
MJP Motoring Solicitors
May, 25, 2011
Well if it is going to save time, money and lives then we should have it in every car.