They're going to put black boxes in cars and they haven't even been made mandatory for all commercial aircraft??
Car black box prepares for take-off
MURDO MACLEOD
POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (mmacleod@scotlandonsunday.com)
CARS will be equipped with £500 aircraft-style black boxes to help cut the death toll on the country's roads under plans being considered by the government.
Department for Transport (DfT) officials are working with international experts to develop worldwide standards for car data recorders that record key information, including a car's speed and steering angle, in the moments up to a crash.
Some are capable of sending a signal to alert the emergency services if they "think" that the driver is seriously injured. Sat-nav technology then guides police and paramedics to the vehicle.
Different types of black boxes, which are actually brightly coloured so they can be easily found following a crash, have already been installed in a small number of top-of-the-range cars in the UK and in a larger number of vehicles in the United States.
Road traffic laws are reserved to the Westminster government, which is increasingly concerned about the rising death toll on the country's road network. In 2005, the latest year for which figures are available, 286 people were killed on Scotland's roads, and 2,600 were seriously injured.
Now, the DfT has confirmed it is in talks with transport authorities and manufacturers across the world with a view to bringing in a new kind of black box data recorder for new cars. It also acknowledged that civil liberties campaigners may oppose the devices.
A DfT spokesman said: "The government recognises the contribution these devices make to improving vehicle safety particularly in the field of research. The use of equipment that can record details of an individual's actions may have implications for personal privacy and these have to be considered carefully."
The government's main focus is on the US, where the devices - known as Motor Vehicle Event Data Recorders (MVEDR) - are fitted on the majority of new cars, particularly high-specification models. The devices were originally developed to help tweak the design and settings of airbag systems in cars.
America's National Transportation Safety Board, the nation's road safety watchdog, wants the technology installed in all new vehicles. Although US legislators have so far not agreed, they have formulated laws stating what kind of data the boxes will have to collect.
'Motorists may feel that it might be used to track them for road pricing'
This information includes vehicle speed, engine revs per minute, acceleration, what angle the vehicle is at, data from the antilock braking system, whether the driver and passenger are wearing seatbelts, and what angle the steering wheel is at. The boxes will also collect data from the car's airbag systems. Unlike similar systems on aircraft, the black box will not record conversations in the car.
Crash investigators hope they will be able to use the information in future to work out the causes behind crashes including who might have been at fault and whether design problems might have contributed.
The news that £500 will be added to the price of new cars is likely to receive a hostile reception from motorists in the UK who already pay more than drivers in many other European countries and face ever increasing fuel and road taxes.
Civil liberties groups have also expressed fears over the possible invasion of privacy.
Human rights lawyer John Scott said: "This sort of development could represent a further encroachment into privacy. When we already have a number of different techniques for vehicle recognition and massive CCTV coverage all over, this is another way of tracking us. Bit by bit our privacy is being eroded. While we have a government which means us no harm, these things can be used in ways we wouldn't like."
A spokeswoman for the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders Limited (SMMT) added: "This is something which has not really been discussed for quite a while. The engine management systems in some cars can record some of this kind of data, but there needs to be a balance between the issues of road safety and personal privacy. A lot more research needs to be done."
Others were more welcoming but foresaw problems over fears the devices would be used for road pricing.
Neil Greig, head of policy in Scotland for the Institute of Advanced Motorists Trust, said: "Consumers will like the idea of a black box which could alert the authorities in the event of an accident, and that is especially relevant in the United States where drivers cover very large areas.
"The question to be sorted out here would be who will take the call, because the emergency services are, if anything, wanting to screen out unnecessary calls. Also, motorists will be very sceptical of something like this if they feel it might be used to track them for road pricing.
"We do welcome the move for an international system. Scottish drivers increasingly buy cars from North America and East Asia and you want systems bought there to work here."
Some cars already carry forms of black boxes, which can record some data about speed as part of engine management systems. Many newer Mercedes-Benz cars, for instance, log engine data so that mechanics can analyse any starting problem.
In addition, some newer BMWs have devices which are connected to satellite navigation networks and can analyse whether to alert the emergency services after an incident.
If the vehicle's airbags have been activated and the car is not moving, the computer judges that an accident has taken place. If the driver has not pressed the SOS button available in some models, then the computer will alert a BMW rescue centre which will in turn request an ambulance and police to go to the scene of the accident.
