[privacy] Black boxes spark uproar

[Gordon Darling <gordondarling () dsl pipex com>]

Black boxes spark uproar

Safety advocates, automakers ask feds to rewrite the rules

David Shepardson / The Detroit News

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061030/AUTO01/610300388/1148/rss25

<snip>

WASHINGTON -- A new federal rule to standardize minimum requirements for
"black boxes" in vehicles wasn't expected to be controversial, but it
has ignited a firestorm of protests from groups that largely agree the
information collected by the devices improves auto safety.

All U.S. and foreign automakers have asked the National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration to rewrite the rule because they say it's too
vague and will cost too much to implement. Safety advocates say it
doesn't go far enough.

A NHTSA spokesman said last week the agency will respond to the
requests, but did not say when. If denied by the NHTSA, the petitioners
can ask a judge to block the rule from being implemented.

The new rule is set to take effect in September 2010. Automakers have
asked NHTSA to respond quickly -- by March -- because product planning
for 2010 models will begin as early as next year.

The standoff comes a decade after the National Transportation Safety
Board and NASA recommended using data from auto event data recorders, or
EDRs, much like airlines use information from black boxes in airplanes.

The NHTSA has said standardizing black box data can help the auto
industry and safety researchers study how and why accidents occur and
how to prevent them.

The devices collect a variety of data in the moments before, during and
after a crash, such as speed and acceleration, whether the driver was
wearing a seat belt and whether the driver hit the accelerator or the
brake.

In August, the NHTSA unveiled its final rule for standardizing EDRs,
which are now installed in most new cars and trucks, paring back some
mandates in its original 2004 proposal to acknowledge concerns raised by
automakers.

The final rule reduced the number of data elements required from 18 to
15, said data recorders must be able to record two events in very
serious crashes, rather than three, and required data to be retrievable
for 10 days instead of 30.

The NHTSA did not mandate that the devices be put in all vehicles.
Rather, it followed California's lead in telling automakers they must
inform customers if their vehicle has one.

But the NHTSA's final rule ended up pleasing no one.

Automakers told the NHTSA this month that roughly 11 types of data
required to be collected can be inaccurate in current recorders and that
they may not be able to comply without installing more expensive sensors
because the rule requires a closer margin of error than current sensors
allow.

"Most of these other error sources are inherent to the current
state-of-the-art EDR technology and cannot be eliminated without
significant cost," Robert Strassburger, director of vehicle safety for
the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, wrote to the NHTSA.

The alliance, which represents nine automakers including General Motors
Corp., Ford Motor Co., DaimlerChrysler AG and Toyota Motor Corp., and
the trade group that represents most foreign manufacturers are asking
the NHTSA to increase the margin of error for acceleration from plus or
minus five percent to 10 percent, among other revisions.

The automakers also asked that the requirements be phased in, with
complete compliance in 2013. "It is not practical to implement these
product changes across the entire product fleet by September 1, 2010,"
Strassburger wrote.

Automakers are not alone in asking for changes to the rule, which has
many components.

Safety advocacy group Public Citizen said NHTSA's action will delay the
potential benefits of black boxes for years.

"NHTSA has squandered an opportunity to fully realize the numerous
safety benefits offered by EDRs," Public Citizen President Joan
Claybrook wrote to the agency.

"With over 40,000 people dying on American roads each year, it is
unconscionable for the agency to stumble on this issue and to prevent
the maximization of EDR benefits."

Public Citizen is demanding that more data be collected from the
devices. The group also wants stricter standards for the survivability
of crash data and insuring that investigators can quickly access EDR
data.

In the final rule, devices must only survive a 35 mph frontal crash.
Public Citizen notes that about 75 percent of vehicles involved in fatal
crashes are traveling faster than that.

AAA, with 48 million members nationwide, blasted the final rule for
delaying until 2008 the requirement that the auto companies inform
drivers of the devices.

"We believe motorists must know what data is being collected by their
vehicles and how it can and cannot be used," AAA CEO Robert Darbelnet
wrote in asking the NHTSA to reconsider its decision. "The public's
right to know cannot be compromised."

Most automakers already inform consumers, since California mandated it
in 2004. And most vehicles already have the devices.

For 2005, about 64 percent of new models had black boxes, a figure that
likely is much higher now. Toyota installs them in all of its vehicles,
while GM and Ford equip nearly all their models. DaimlerChrysler AG's
Chrysler Group has the technology in more than half.

The data, collected beginning five seconds before a crash at the time
air bags are deployed, can help determine who was at fault in an
accident and the cause.

Unlike airplane black boxes, vehicle EDRs don't record voices. And
without a crash being severe enough to prompt an air bag deployment, no
data is recorded.

W. Scott Palmer, CEO of Injury Sciences in Texas that helps insurers
collect black box data, said insurers will eventually be able to gather
and evaluate millions of EDR data records. "NHTSA's ruling heralds a
major, technology driven change in the way policies are underwritten,"
he said.

NHTSA estimates the rule will cost automakers $11 million to $33 million
annually, depending on how many vehicles are equipped with data
recorders and whether additional data elements are required in the
future. The automakers say if the rule isn't changed, it will cost them
far more than that.

Forty states haven't passed any legislation governing data recorders.
Ten states -- Arkansas, California, Colorado, Maine, Nevada, New
Hampshire, New York, North Dakota, Texas and Virginia -- have laws on
the books.

The laws generally require manufacturers to disclose the presence of
recorders in vehicles or clarify that the data is owned by vehicle
owners and can only be accessed with their permission.

This year Colorado, Maine, New Hampshire and Virginia adopted
regulations to clarify when law enforcement may retrieve data. States
are split on whether police need a warrant to get the data.

Privacy advocates have voiced concern about data falling into the wrong
hands or about "spying" on drivers. Hundreds have written to the NHTSA
in recent months denouncing the devices.
<snip>

-- 
gordondarling<at>dsl<dot>pipex<dot>com

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