Automobile "Black Box" (Data Recorder)

Commercial aircraft have "black boxes" that record data and cockpit voices during a flight so that, in the event of a crash, the information they contain may be analyzed to help determine the cause. The present idea is that similar capability can be installed in automobiles and other vehicles, and would serve many purposes.

Vehicles are become more automated, and may even have general purpose computers in a short time (sometimes called "auto PCs"). The uses of on-board computers may include monitoring and controlling the operation of all of the vehicles functions, helping to avoid accidents, maximizing passenger comfort, scheduling maintenance, etc. With such capability already present, it would be possible at virtually no cost to record some of the information. The amount of data recorded probably need not exceed a few hours' or days' worth, and, for sensor data, would take up very little storage, especially if compressed (this kind of data is well suited to high compression factors).

An additional step would be to add some inexpensive video cameras at various points on the vehicle to record external activity. One in the front might be adequate, but a second in the rear would probably also be useful. Naturally recording video would consume more storage, but continual price reductions diminish this concern.

Such a feature might be so useful as to be worth making a legal requirement. However, there will be some ethical objections to such a requirement, as it would be, to some extent, an invasion of privacy. Drivers may not want their behavior being recorded, and may even have legitimate reasons for such objections (that is, they may be concerned about their behavior being observed for illegal or marketing purposes, and not simply worried about being caught for speeding). So, if such a feature were available, it may be optional, as selected by the owner (and could even be disabled).

The ethical questions raised by such a feature are not eliminated by making the feature optional. The fact that such a feature exists on some vehicles means that other vehicle operation is being recorded. It could be possible, for example, to track the trajectory of an "unrecorded" vehicle by matching records from recoring vehicles that it may have passed. The argument that therefore such recording should not be permitted on any vehicle may not prevail, since there are already cameras to record speed limit and traffic signal violations.

As with many technologies, the potential to offer great benefit may conflict with ethical and practical concerns about personal privacy and security.