[SGVLUG] black boxes in your car

[Emerson, Tom]

> -----Original Message----- Of matti
> 
> many new cars have blackboxes...
> potential privacy concerns noted

This is a double edged sword -- yes, in some (perhaps many) cases it
will help prove "you" did all you could to avoid an accident, but the
cynic in me says that 9 times out of 10, your own insurance company will
pick the data apart in order to show you were at fault and therefore
deny many claims  (though this is a diminishing returns problem -- it
may cost the company more to analyze the data than it will to simply pay
the claim...)

OTOH, if you *know* you were "negligent" in some (minor to major) way,
knowing that "the black box" will confirm that will only make people wig
out and scream "my privacy has been invaded!"  Maybe I'm becoming an old
codger, but my gut instinct on this one is, "don't break 'the law', and
you won't have to worry what the EDR says..."

Now, one case that WOULD make me bitch and moan a lot would be if NO
accident occurred, but an officer pulls me over, and without a word to
me pulls out some form of scanner type device (perhaps bluetooth based?)
to read off "what I'd been doing for the last xx miles" and writes me a
ticket for a marginal infraction (such as speeding up to 66 to safely
pass a car...)  For this, however, I believe some form of precedent has
been set in that the "arresting officer" has to physically SEE you break
the law -- anything else is "hearsay" evidence  (I'm told this may be
one way to beat a radar ticket if the officer with the radar is in a
plane or helicopter...)