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Automakers and Crash Data Recorders
The New York Times has a decent story about automakers not wanting to standardize car data recorders. There are a couple of nuances which the reporter mostly misses. The automakers want to avoid standardization because they can then sell access to the proprietary data format (NYT does cover this, but ignores the profit motive). The story mentions privacy issues but dismisses them as solved, yet notes that there are no privacy protections whatsoever for this data, and you can expect it to be used against you in any incident (and perhaps other times: wait until service under your warranty is refused because your car reported your bad driving habits to the dealer). That's not "solved" in my book (and I think the automakers realize that selling cars which report on their owners might backfire). Speculation about ambulance crews using crash data is just hype - no ambulance is equipped to do that, nor would I want an EMT to spend time decoding the crash data instead of, say, saving my life. The article repeatedly suggests that crash data would be used to enhance safety, without ever specifying how that is supposed to occur.
Why doesn't anyone post these links in the original article?
~Idarubicin
I'm an EMT and I see alot of car crashes. I can tell you that this would be just about useless to us in the field. The simple fact is we don't have time to analyze the data and the computer couldn't tell us anything that can't be seen by looking at the crashed cars themselves. Another thing is that ALL motor vehicle accidents are considered "significant mechanism of injury" meaning that while we will do what we can to help our number one priority is to get the patient to the hospital as soon as possible.
One final thought. Most ambulances these days are run by for profit services. These services use the cheapest/smallest trucks they can find and keep only the absolute minimum equipment required by law on board. So, unless it becomes required by law it would never make its way onto the vast majority of ambulances
That is not entirely correct. I posted that over a year ago. I am currently a junior in high school and I am also a member of the Harvard, MA EMT squad. My highschool has a special state varience allowing students under the age of 18 to become licensed EMTs. I have no particular way of proving this to you save to say its the truth.