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Old 11-05-2004, 04:45 PM   #1
Pilot2519j
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Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Huntersville, NC
Posts: 655
Event Data Recorders

Seems that Big Brother is prying into the activities of cars. The EDR's can record a a multitude of parameters supposedly to help assist car manufacturers in future design be more crash resistant. Obviously in a good world this would be a noble enterprise but the info is being used for different and varied reasons that in most cases have nothing to do with crashworthiness but more in exculpatory evidence that the cars were used improperly prior to the accident. GM and Ford have already incorporated these EDR to their cars. Foreign builders are slowly joining this revolution. Lexus and Toyota are going full steam incorporating these electronic boxes.
Porsche so far has stayed out of this electronic fad. Their sensor will only detect air bag deployment, BMW has more parameters, Audi and VW are not using them. Porsche is of the opinion that their drivers privacy would be infringe if the ERD's are adopted. Porsche drivers even though they drive more aggresive are more experienced are better and more experience drivers that your typical car driver. One application that has resulted in a big turmoil was a car rental company that charged a driver thousand dollars for driving the car out of state as recorded by the gps of the car. Insurance companies can back stab now the drivers in accidents with negligent driving with information from the ERD's. So not only we have the cops now we have ERD's.
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