Drivers will be surprised, says Daniel Attwood, at the amount of data stored in their cars - and which could be used in legal cases
The news that an Australian Supreme Court ruling has allowed the police there to download data stored by a car's electronic control units (ECU) has highlighted the question of just what information is being stored by cars on motorists' driving habits.
It will surprise many motorists to learn that their car is secretly recording their driving habits. What will be even more worrying is that this data could now be used against them, if they are involved in an accident.
And equally concerning for those who would rather not have a spy in their car is the recent Joint Oireachtais Committee Report on road safety that recommends that "black boxes"', which store information about a vehicle just before a crash, should be immediately fitted to public service vehicles.
It also recommends that it be mandatory for young drivers to have these devices fitted to their cars, and that private car drivers who have a spy-in-the-cab should benefit from insurance premium reductions
But ECUs already act as black boxes in modern cars fitted with multistage airbags. The ECUs record data to control airbag deployment and it is access to this data that led to the recent Australian Supreme Court ruling.
Not surprisingly, car manufacturers are questioning just how useful the data gathered in the Australian case is. While the Australian police downloaded information relating to the speed of a Peugeot car immediately prior to a fatal accident, the manufacturer says accessing such data is extremely difficult. "Peugeot consulted specialists in this field and they say that it is not an easy manner to access the information. An ordinary dealer or distributor cannot access information of this nature or depth on a passenger car," explains a spokesman for the French manufacturer.
"However, Peugeot confirms that information of this nature, ie speed, gears, impact, etc, may possibly be accessed by manufacturers of airbags. But I need to stress - may."
Ford confirms that the only ECUs that store data in its cars are also those relating to airbags. "We do have one inside the airbag deployment system. This only records simple data regarding the logic steps that led into the airbag deployment," notes Michel Koch, Director of Technology Communication of Ford of Europe.
"All signals leading to this act of deployment are consequently stored in a small eprom logger which can be researched from the experts of the system's development only," he says. "Other data, such as speed or engine speed are not being looked at."
Prestige manufacturer, BMW, is reticent about revealing what information its cars store on their drivers' habits. "We would be reluctant to go into detail on the information stored for security reasons," remarks the German carmaker's spokesman. "The most controversial one tends to be airbag-related data as many people assume the 'black box' data records information on speed of travel, severity of impact.
" However, we do not disclose this information as it is only used internally to ensure components triggered correctly. They would generally not be used as evidence for example in a court case."
So your car may already be storing incriminating data. But there are also black box devices that can be retrofitted. And it is these black box systems that the Joint Oireachtais Committee Report recommends should be installed on certain vehicles immediately. There are certainly safety benefits to this technology. A black box or event data recorder (EDR) the size of a cigarette package and costing less than €200 records all relevant data when a crash occurs and sends this information to the emergency services.
"An EDR system could save 20 per cent of lives lost each year because of the faster response by emergency services during the 'golden hour' that is critical for the protection of lives," says the report.
It recommends that EDRs should be immediately fitted to all 55,000 public vehicles currently in use. It says that such a system could be operational as early as the start of next year. Mercedes-Benz has already developed this technology for its flagship S-Class, which informs the emergency services of a crash through the in-car phone system.
It informs them of the accident location, the severity of the impact and even sends an internet link that even details the car's emergency cutting points.
But, unlike the Mercedes system, the black boxes recommended by the Oireachtais Committee do more than call an ambulance - they also store specific information on the driver's actions prior to impact.
If such EDRs were fitted, there would undoubtedly be an immediate impact on driver behaviour says the report: "Drivers would have a sense of being supervised and know that, if an accident happens, the full reasons for the accident, including driver behaviour, will be recorded."
The Oireachtais is already investigating the next step - the use of black boxes in all cars - and has called on the motor industry to back this move.
"Car manufacturers already have the technology but cannot use it because of concerns about data protection," says the report. It adds that if the motor industry comes on board, black boxes could be fitted for less than €1.50 each - because the manufacturers are currently installing black boxes, but not making the information available to anyone else.