Science Cafe: Crash Data Recorders

Posted Monday, November 8, 2010

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Almost all cars manufactured today have a tiny event data recorder hidden somewhere on board. Like an airplane's black box, it collects information before and after a crash. Were you speeding? Did you buckle up? The box knows. So will the authorities and the insurance companies. On our Science Café edition of the Sound of Ideas, we'll learn how the data recorders work, what the information is used for and why some people worry that the technology might one day put Big Brother in the passenger's seat. Monday at 9:00 on 90.3.

Guests

Chuck Veppert, crash reconstructionist, Valley Technical Services
Jacqueline D. Lipton, Professor of Law, Co-Director of the Center for Law Technology and the Arts, Case Western Reserve University

Additional Information

Science Cafe
Cars equipped with event data recorders

Please follow our community discussion rules when composing your comments.

James Armstrong 10:19 AM 11/8/10

My wife was involved in a vehicle crash last summer where she is sure that her brakes failed to apply. Her car was a 2009 Honda Odyssey, and though our insurance company hired a “forensic mechanic” they could find no evidence of brake failure. Four quick questions:

1. Was her car equipped with such a device?

2. Would it have shown if the brakes failed to deploy?

3. Is the information available to an investigator such as the one hired by our insurance company?

4. Can a person involved in such an incident find out if the device was present, and if it was, what it recorded?

Thank you.