The black box is a well-known term for those who work with or are interested in aircraft, and refers to the tachograph that saves data on how an aircraft is performed.
Data about the aircraft’s speed, course and altitude, as well as what the pilots do and how the various systems work are continuously saved, and can then be used by to determine the cause of a possible accident.
All aircraft above a certain size must be equipped with a black box, and soon this will also be the case for all new passenger cars in the EU.
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EU requirements from July
From July 2024, all newly registered cars within the EU must be equipped with an EDR, or Event Data Recorder, as standard, reports Engine1. This applies to both passenger cars and light trucks.
It can be very difficult to pin down the cause behind traffic accidents, and the idea is that EDR data should help authorities pin down what has happened.
According to documents from the European Commission, data must be saved on the car’s speed, braking effect, position and slope on the road, and how the various active safety systems react.
The system must also keep track of whether the emergency phone function, which has been legislated in the EU since 2018, is activated, as well as the car’s make, model and equipment.
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Does not save data constantly
Unlike the black box in an airplane, where all data is stored continuously, the data will only be saved for a short time right at the time of the accident.
More specifically, data must be recorded from 5 seconds before the collision to 0.3 seconds after the collision.
Data will also be saved if the car’s active pedestrian protection is activated, or if the vehicle’s speed either longitudinally or laterally changes by more than 8 km/h in less than 0.15 seconds.
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Who owns the data, and who can see it?
That the car can save so much data about how it is driven may sound worrying from a personal privacy perspective, but on paper at least it shouldn’t be a problem.
All data that is saved is owned by the car’s owner, and is saved anonymously so that it cannot be manipulated if it falls into the wrong hands. For this reason, the last four digits of the car’s chassis number, or any other data that can identify the car’s owner, are not saved either.
The data cannot be accessed wirelessly, but must be downloaded manually from the car by plugging in a physical cable.
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