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Re: "Black Boxes" Posted by CrNiFe [Email]  (#408)  [Profile/Gallery]
(more from CrNiFe) on Fri, 10 Feb 2006 09:07:02
In Reply to: "Black Boxes", Henry, Fri, 10 Feb 2006 06:19:40 Members do not see ads below this line. - Help Keep This Site Online - Signup |
If a car has an air bag, it has a black box. The early versions would save only the data from the delta v, or change of velocity of the vehicle, measured by decelerometers placed in the car which is used in the calculations to deploy the airbags, but now the boxes have a record of the information on seat belts, speed, brake pedal position, and other things.
Different manufacturers use different codes for the engine management software, and the same applies for the collision data recorders. Even though SAAB is part of the GM world, I am not aware if I can use the Vetronix system to download the CDR information on my vehicles. Ford uses a different encoding.
There is a big debate in the USA about who owns the information in the box, the driver, the registered owner, or the vehicle manufacturer. We seem to taking a different approach in Canada, perhaps because of our different perceptions of potential threats to civil liberties.
At work, we use the CDR information, along with all kinds of crush measurements of the vehicles, and evidence on the road, in our analysis to reconstruct collisions. I am not sure why you would want to disconnect your air bag computer, but it wouldn't really help you survive an accident, or get the right settlement from the insurance companies (as in, was it not your fault?) for your estate if you were killed or maimed. Operating a vehicle with a disconnected air bag would likely be frowned upon by your insurance company. I don't advise it.
If you don't want a Black Box watching you drive, find a car without air bags. Maybe you can find Fred Flinstone's vehicle in the used car dealership...
CrNiFe, Vehicle Collision Reconstruction Engineer,
Toronto
, Fri, 10 Feb 2006 09:07:02 <-- Viewing This Message
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