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'Black Box' Readings Help Convict Montreal Driver
the man writes "From CBC News, Here's one that is going to get a lot of attention in the coming years. Quebec police won a dangerous-driving conviction Friday using evidence from the 'black box' in the car, a first in the province. Turns out that not many people know of these things. Time to start working on the mod for my Toyota."
As much as everyone here will rant on and on about how this is an intrusion of their rights, how "big brother" is watching them, this is actually a rather good idea.
...*goes to check that his car doesn't have one*
I'm not saying it should be mandated that these be installed in every single vehicle manufactured, but I see no reason why they shouldn't be admitted as evidence in a trial. Perhaps it will make people think twice before speeding like maniacs...
I would expect such blatant racism on Fark, but on Slashdot? Mods please ban this asshole.
Time to start working on the mod for my Toyota."
Wouldn't that be illegal under something? The DMCA, or some Patriot Act whatnot? You're breaking into something that supposed to protect society, etc...
In addition these may be used in a case where a speed-trap cop tickets you for speeding when perhaps you weren't.
The speed limits are there for the public good. If you keep dancing around them, you're bound to get burnt - and for a good reason.
The owls are not what they seem
Speed limits are there for a revenue source for the local government. Why else would the cops stop the easiest catches, rather than the fastest ones?
And before you call bullshit on me, I'VE WITNESSED THIS HAPPEN. I've also gotten a ticket over this very situation, where people flew by me going 20 miles over the speed limit, and I'm only going 10 over.
The problem is that they may not have enough data.
For instance if your tires were spinning, it could record you going a lot faster than you actually were, but the blackbox has no way of telling that, it will just simply record the speed your tires were spinning at...regardless of how fast you were going...
There are many more things like this...
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Unjust laws are a recipe for disaster. Breaking unjust laws are the only thing a just man can do. I am so sick of people thinking that it is fine for the government to interfere with people'e inalienable rights to life, liberty, and property. If its my car, I can take the stupid little "black" box out of it if I want.
Viral software licensing is not freedom, it is in fact GNU/Socialism.
ABS when working properly gets rid of skid marks.
This leaves much less evidence on how fast you were going.
Additionally it might be interesting to see that someone hit the gas when they "accidentally" ran someone over.
How about just disconnecting the leads that provide the data you don't want to record? Surely there must be some that isn't critical. There's no critical reason why current speed should be recorded. No reason for recording brake pedal pressure or steering wheel position.
Actually, my left-wing friend, any tool can become a weapon.
A car becomes a deadly weapon when I intentionally strike you or run you over with one. I am using my tool as a weapon. In this case, you being killed or greatly injured is not a side-effect, but in fact intended effect.
A crowbar is a tool with many uses. If I bash you over the head with it, it just became a weapon. A power drill is also a multi-use tool, unless I plunge it into your skull during sleep. Again a weapon. A butcher knife is a tool for preparing food, unless I use it to sever your genitals.
Guns are tools which are used for deterrence, among other things. They are not used for killing unless I point it at you and shoot you with it. Not that I am threatening to do that or ever could do that to anyone.
Now do I agree with the parent? No. Guns shouldn't have serial numbers either.
While I question my sanity at leaving this under my ID, I have done 81.4 (85 actually) _M_ph in Manhattan - on 5th as well as FDR & West Side Hwy.f -the-accident,-Officer" guy.
On FDR & West Side Hwy I was doing speed of traffic to avoid being the "I'm-doing-the-speed-limit-so-I'm-not-the-cause-o
On 5th (from 110th all the way to Washington Park) I was merely trying to catch all the lights green - which I did. (excepting 28th Street which was out of phase from the rest of the lights) Only scared one pedestrian who was reading a paper while walking against the light around the lower 60's.
Having done it the once is not reason enough to do it again, or advise others to try it. Though from personal experience *most* Manhattan traffic will go as fast as they can, within their acceleration envelope, for as long as they can before having to stop again.
The former sig-o that was with me just recently deigns to speak to me again.
Your complaints about being offended offend me.
There are places in Colorado where it's nearly impossible to stay under the speed limit without having your foot constantly on the brakes for several minutes at a time (these are the roads with the big runaway truck ramps every couple minutes). What people tend to do is coast until they're a bit over the limit and then apply the brakes until they're a fair amount under the limit and let the brakes cool while they coast again. If a cop sees you doing this you'll get a ticket, even if you were just doing it to prevent the larger problem of having your brakes fail.
How long after that before random checkpoints access this data without a cop seeing you apparently speeding first?
How long before a wireless option is added and your car data is checked by unmanned roadside monitors and the ticket arrives in the mail? Or is just automatically debited?
How long before they just automatically disable your car when you exceed your limit?
How long...
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
As anything, it all depends.
I usually get passed by most traffic when going at 120kph (75mph) in a 70kph (45mph) zone at 3 am (closing time for bars) when there's little traffic and no pedestrians.
I agree, though, that the same speed midday would be suicidal / homocidal.
(In Montreal)
"When a ball dreams, it dreams it's a frisbee"
Just a nit-pick, but aside from maybe really old 1st generation models (which in Montreal will tend to be all rusted up and useless as transportation) there are no Acura Integras that have Macpherson struts for their suspension. You're thinking of the Acura RSX, which is more of a luxury sports coupe than an actual sport compact model.
And if you want to nit pick about the RSX being an Integra in Europe and Japan, I will just nit pick that over there, it's not an Acura :)
"Not to mention all the idiots who use words like boxen."
Anonymous Coward on Monday August 04, @06:49PM
The black box recording can be turned off, or so i'm told by a friend that works for GM. He says he turns the recording off in all his vehicles. They have some device called a tech 2 or tech 3 and the recording can be turned on and off with this device.
Recently our company has begun writing several of the sensor signals into unused areas of the EEPROM when we detect certain types of component failures. This helps to troubleshoot what area of the failure detection strategy code might be too sensitive. (To avoid those "I had a warning lamp on this morning and when I drove to lunch it was gone." experiences)
I am certain that the the airbag module supplier has this functionality implemented for similar reasons, especially since new "multiple stage" airbags are beginning to be used. The article calls it an Event Data Recorder which most definitely was not the intent of recording such data.
The stability control system has the ability to record 10-20 more interesting pieces of data such as throttle position, yaw rate, steering angle, lateral and longitudinal acceleration, four individual wheel speeds, master cylinder hydraulic pressure, etc. But why should it? The auto industry fights vigorously for every single cent (even fractional cents) in the cost of each component. Unless the OEM specifically requests such functionality, the supplier (my company) won't just add it in for fun.
We only have enough unused space in our EEPROM for a few signals at the exact point in time that the failure occurred, and would have no reason to increase this capacity unless our customer (the OEM) requested it and was willing to pay for it. This type of "snapshot" is only to improve the robustness of the product in the long term.
Misuse of this data is really the issue, not the fact that it is being written.
Now, what if you pay cash? Well, the original still goes to the state MVD.
In exchange for this (it is part of registration), you get your "license to drive" - well, actually, to get a license, you have to surrender your MSO to the MVD.
There is a lot of speculation that it may all be bullshit (like all good conspiracy theories), but look into "Right to Travel" on Google.
Basically, as the theory goes, when licensing for automobiles came about, we traded our freedom to travel for the automobile license, and thus have become slaves (not Free Men) to the State...
Reason is the Path to God - Anon