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Toyota Black Box Data Is More Closed Than Others'

Posted by timothy on from the in-the-dark dept.

wjr writes "Many cars these days contain black boxes that record information (speed, accelerator position, etc) and can preserve information in the case of an accident. Ford and Chrysler say that they use 'open systems' so anyone can read out the data; General Motors has licensed Bosch to produce a device capable of reading its cars' black boxes. On the other hand, Toyota has only a single laptop in the US capable of reading its cars' black boxes, and generally won't allow the data to be read without a court order. Honda seems to have a similar policy. This is emerging as an issue in the investigation into unintended acceleration."

5 of 276 comments (clear)

  1. Re:A challenge... by jamesh · · Score: 5, Funny

    Wouldn't it be grand if the guys who hacked Ubisoft's latest game [slashdot.org] took on this challenge instead?

    It would be nice, but it's impossible. They'd have to be some sort of elite uber-hacker to even attempt such a challenge.

    Absolutely impossible.

    Not a hope in hell.

    Can't be done.

  2. Re:A challenge... by ipquickly · · Score: 4, Funny

    their first line of defense is security by obscurity

    I think their first line of defense is knaji, hiragana, and katakana.
    That leaves over 97% of the world out of the loop.

  3. Re:A challenge... by Idiomatick · · Score: 4, Funny

    I don't think a hacker really gives a shit if a variable is named "carSpeed" or named " " ... well, unless the hackers are the same people that made /.

  4. Surprising by theArtificial · · Score: 5, Funny

    Will Toyota stop at nothing?!

    --
    Man blir trött av att gå och göra ingenting.
  5. Re:A challenge... by JamesP · · Score: 4, Funny

    so it's probably written karuSpeedu or something...

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    how long until /. fixes commenting on Chrome?