As James Fitzgerald wheeled his tractor-trailer down Interstate 40 near the Nashville International Airport last summer, little did he know that a small black box aboard the truck might later help clear him of homicide charges.
His truck collided with a police car, killing an officer who had stopped to assist a disabled vehicle. Police alleged that Fitzgerald was traveling at least 80 mph at the time of the crash, and he was jailed on charges of vehicular homicide and aggravated assault.
But the 25-year-old trucker pleaded not guilty, and when his trial begins this summer, the black box will be his star witness. According to Fitzgerald's lawyer, Patrick McNally, data from the device shows that the truck was traveling at the legal limit of 70 mph.
"I think juries are much more inclined to rely upon electronic devices that measure speed than personal opinions of speed," McNally said in an interview with CNET News.com. "We live in an electronic age, and we've all learned to rely on electronic devices."
The case represents an unusual twist in the controversial use of digital information in cars. Although Fitzgerald views his truck's electronic data as a benefit, others say such technologies contribute to an increasingly Orwellian society where individuals' every move is monitored. Many are particularly galled by the notion of applying these technologies to the automobile on the open road, a symbol of American freedom that often represents a rite of passage from adolescence to adulthood.
http://news.cnet.com/Rocky-road-for-car-black-boxes/2009-1041_3-5604449.htmlBlack boxes are already in automobiles, and your car may have one!
One of the best-kept secrets in the auto industry is that many late-model GM cars now have electronic gizmos installed along with their airbags to record data when a car crashes. The device, much like the black box on an airplane, is known in the trade as a Sensing & Diagnostic Module (SDM), a simple version of which was first installed in the 1994 model year.
That relatively unsophisticated accident data recorder replaced the multiple electro-mechanical switches, previously used to tell the airbags when to deploy, with a single solid state accelerometer. The circuitry also computed and stored the change in velocity during the impact to provide an estimate of the severity of the crash. In addition, it recorded whether the driver's seat belt was buckled at the time.
Certain GM cars in the 1999 model year have the added capability to record vital information for a few seconds prior to impact. Vehicle speed, engine RPM, throttle position, and whether the driver was braking or not are recorded for the five seconds preceding a deployment or near-deployment of the air bags.
This latest SDM is installed in the 1999 Buick Century, Park Avenue, and Regal; the Cadillac Eldorado, DeVille, and SeVille; the Chevrolet Camaro and Corvette; and the Pontiac Firebird. Almost all GM vehicles will receive this capability over the next few years.
The airbag black box was first publicized at an International Symposium on Transportation Recorders held in Arlington, Virginia in May 1999. The SDM is, in fact, invaluable to crash investigators who, until now, could only take an educated guess at the speed of a car involved in an accident based on evidence at the crash scene.
http://www.drivers.com/article/248/
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