[E90raw]

I just read an article about the black box associated with the air bag computer that stores data like velocity, seat belt use, etc at the time of air bag deployment. All cars will be equiped by 2014 according to the NHTSA. There are not many laws protecting the information gathered by the device. Does anyone know if there is a way to get it out or deactivate the recording of data? Insurance companies can use the data to cancel policy's, and the data retrieval can be full time.

[jaybird124]

This has actually been installed on a lot of cars for a long time.

[BRAISKI]

Originally Posted by jaybird124

This has actually been installed on a lot of cars for a long time.

Thats what I thought too...

[jessandjamie]

Unless your driving like a douche it might help prove you innocent should you happen to get in a severe enough accident. Why remove it?

[shadow191]

I think that same article noted that 96% of cars currently produced already have them. The only insurance company doing anything similar right now is Progressive and they have that separate box that tracks all of your driving habits, but it's voluntary.

Slightly related, but I have a company car. A few years back, they provided Fords as company cars. A co-worker decided to see how fast he could go in it. The next day, our boss called him into his office and asked him why he was doing 117mph. That was a revelation, apparently on that Ford, if he exceeded a certain speed, the car notified our fleet manager. Don't know if it's only Fords, but our current company Chryslers haven't done so yet.

[JustROLLIN]

Careful not to confuse a device that records the data and something like shadow191 mentioned above, which is actually a telematics device that is proactively sending data and notifying big brother in real time.

[SharkBait]

Does anyone have any evidence that confirms this data actually exists anywhere on the E9x? I know there's top RPM and probably top speed but those don't prove anything with respect to insurance or legal liability. The valet could have set the top speed on the car. But is there freeze frame data when an impact is detected?

Pretty sure Progressive's dongle records the number of hard braking events and that is used to determine your risk factors.

[Sparkee]

I don't have evidence, but would not be surprised. I know the DME records other stuff such as the mileage at which codes are thrown. How hard would it be to keep a few second record of things like speed, seatbelt use, etc?

And, Progressive is probably going way beyond what they claim they are doing. Take a look at http://www.google.com/patents/US5797134. That is the Progressive patent for the SnapShot device. If you look at the 4th image, you'll see that it includes GPS. So, they can theoretically record and transmit to themselves where you drive, actually tell if you are speeding, and a whole lot more. It also can supposedly report when (and probably where) it was disconnected. It would be scary stuff if all the insurance companies start doing this.

[jessandjamie]

Originally Posted by SharkBait

Does anyone have any evidence that confirms this data actually exists anywhere on the E9x? I know there's top RPM and probably top speed but those don't prove anything with respect to insurance or legal liability. The valet could have set the top speed on the car. But is there freeze frame data when an impact is detected?

While I have no idea if the is one in the BMW yet. I do know that when I was watching a show about accidents they mentioned it in GM vehicles at the time. What it did in them was record steering wheel position, gas and brake pedal positions and speed. It kept track of the last 15-30 sec or so I can't remember exactly. So it was always recording over itself until something shut it off like an accident.

[pspressart]

My wife and I had SnapShot devices on our cars. She drives a 2002 Lexus RX300, and I was driving a 2002 325xi. Progressive says that the only use hard brakes to detemine the discount, but they do record other information, like time-of-day and speed. They do not have GPS. The SnapShot ended up being a PITA. It recorded almost all the hard brakes when the car was going 10 MPH or less, hardly the type of driving that was going to cause much damage in a rear-end collision. The other gotcha was that even though they said you only had to use it for six months, they regularly bumped up the start date, so that you never quite got to the six month total. I ended up just pulling them off and mailing them back.

[SharkBait]

Yes, but if it was in our cars, surely we could access it through INPA or one of the other BMW tools. So, it's likely that if it existed, someone would have found it by now.

As for the Progressive tool, I'd never use one but I'd bet there are some people figuring out ways to either scramble or spoof the GPS signal. And the OBD speed, braking signals, can easily be spoofed similar to the way a piggyback tune works.

[E90raw]

The other monitoring going on is license plate camaras. Each municipality has specific "plate camaras" that takes pictures of your plate and stores the data. Your plate may be stored 9 times in a week. They can track your location, habits, etc. Only a few states have regulations limiting the use of the data. A reporter for the NYT's was able to track himself. The data is stored for years.

[E902009]

I, for one would love for insurance companies to start looking for information on stored on the black box in case I get into an accident, but it needs to be much more advanced than what is currently available, and it would require peripheral devices to be updates as well. For example, it can receive data from a transmitter from a traffic light, so in case if someone T-bones you, it's not a he-said, she-said. Also, a GPS tag would indicate the max speed allowed in the area, and then compare to the speed you're traveling leading up to the accident. All information would transmit to a central data storage for the local authority, insurance companies of all parties involved, and yourself, so as to leave no opportunity for tampering with evidence.

I would have loved to have something like that back in February when some dipshit T-boned me by speeding and running a red light.

[Snaggletooth]

Originally Posted by E90raw

The other monitoring going on is license plate camaras. Each municipality has specific "plate camaras" that takes pictures of your plate and stores the data. Your plate may be stored 9 times in a week. They can track your location, habits, etc. Only a few states have regulations limiting the use of the data. A reporter for the NYT's was able to track himself. The data is stored for years.

This is bad news, guys.

[SharkBait]

Originally Posted by E902009

I, for one would love for insurance companies to start looking for information on stored on the black box in case I get into an accident, but it needs to be much more advanced than what is currently available, and it would require peripheral devices to be updates as well. For example, it can receive data from a transmitter from a traffic light, so in case if someone T-bones you, it's not a he-said, she-said. Also, a GPS tag would indicate the max speed allowed in the area, and then compare to the speed you're traveling leading up to the accident. All information would transmit to a central data storage for the local authority, insurance companies of all parties involved, and yourself, so as to leave no opportunity for tampering with evidence.

I would have loved to have something like that back in February when some dipshit T-boned me by speeding and running a red light.

Get a dash cam and you can have GPS, speed, acceleration, sound, video.

Originally Posted by E90raw

The other monitoring going on is license plate camaras. Each municipality has specific "plate camaras" that takes pictures of your plate and stores the data. Your plate may be stored 9 times in a week. They can track your location, habits, etc. Only a few states have regulations limiting the use of the data. A reporter for the NYT's was able to track himself. The data is stored for years.

That's nothing. Look at the average speed cameras in Britain. No escaping those. Or if you take one wrong turn and accidentally drive two feet into London's congestion charging zone and don't pay for it, you will have a ticket for some ridiculous amount along with a picture of your license plate sitting in your mailbox within 24 hours! Doubt it is misused like what you describe but still.