RIP Paul Walker - killed in a CGT's passenger seat

[southernstar]

I suspect that investigators are required to use Porsche's proprietary software to analyze the data. I also suspect that Porsche wouldn't 'fudge' the readings, law suit or not - those responsible could end up charged with obstructing justice, or the equivalent under California law.

What's the lesson here? Drive at speeds in excess of 100 mph on public streets where there are curbs and light posts and trees directly off the travelled portion of the roadway and there is absolutely no margin for error!

Brad

[Perfectlap]

Originally Posted by southernstar

I suspect that investigators are required to use Porsche's proprietary software to analyze the data. I also suspect that Porsche wouldn't 'fudge' the readings, law suit or not - those responsible could end up charged with obstructing justice, or the equivalent under California law.

I think Porsche are smart enough not to manipulate black and white data.
However, if there was any "approximating" needed for the retrieved data I would very suspicious. In the Ben Keaton and Corey Rudl case Porsche's own engineers contradicted each other on the stand when asked why stability management was left out of the CGT. One admitted straight up that safety was tossed in favor of sales.

If no interpreation/approximation of the data was needed, then the police could easily have given the telemetry to an independent third party (with no interest in concluding if the speed was above or under 100+mph) under a strict confidentiality agreement with Porsche and the police. And even if some guess work had to be done, the independent company could have been able to do this as well as that isn't a proprietary process. It's really head-scratching why the police would allow the party most likely to be the target of a civil suit to make this determination on the speed at impact.
But it doesn't matter because if a civil suit is brought the attorneys of the family and the expert witness they hire are going to have a field day with this decision by the police. What's more interesting to me is that Porsche themselves did not hire a independent firm to recuse themselves from this pivotal fact point. I'm more curious as to how the electronics survived a fire that left the police resorting to dental records. That must be some seriously high temp plastic.

[thstone]

Originally Posted by Perfectlap

... under a strict confidentiality agreement with Porsche and the police.

Good idea, but Toyota refused a highly similar scenario during the Prius unintended acceleration investigation (between Toyota, an independent engineering company, and NASA). Thus, I expect that Porcshe would follow a similar path of refusal.

The #1 rule in the protection of intellectual property is not to disclose it in the first place.

[BYprodriver]

Amazing how often it comes down to tires, especially when speeds get into 3 digits.

Back in my press vehicle test driving days, we had a Dodge SRT10 truck with Viper engine & 6-speed. Truck had a couple thousand miles & was perfect.(handling was amazing for the time 2003) Truck got scheduled to go to Jay Leno for some high speed testing. Chrysler sent a new set of oem 22" tires, Pirellis I think. I protested as much as I dared about installing full tread depth, unproven tires, hours before VIP delivery to the opposite side of LA. Knowing few shops knew how to balance 22" wheels without proper equipment designed for them I anticipated problems leading to delays. My idea had to yield to client ideas so we lucked out & got a decent balance job & lots of unsightly slabs of aftermarket lead.
This all took place about a year after Autoweek rolled a preproduction Jeep Liberty during slalom testing. After this incident Chrysler mandated new OEM all-season tires for each Liberty test loan.