Devangshu Datta: Vehicles with black box

TECHNO BEAT

Any internal combustion engine controlled by an electronic chip records large amounts of data. As chip-driven engines become common, automobile makers are creating smarter cars. For instance, there's the "smart" seat-belt; the engine refuses to turn over until the driver is strapped in.

There are "alcohol-safe" vehicles, where the car administers an instant breathalyser to the driver. If he's over the legal limit, the car won't start. Sometimes habitual drunk-driving offenders are compelled to install these devices.

Some new-generation vehicles have rear-mounted view-cams. These offer 180 degree rear vision in a head-up display, along with superimposed distance calculations. All very useful while reversing tightly or driving in lane-changing traffic.

Another device that's becoming standard issue is the car black box or electronic data recorder (EDR). The EDR is analogous to the aircraft black box (which is actually day-glo orange).

In a crash, the data from the aircraft black box is invaluable in determining the causes.

The car EDR is similar. It automatically records a data stream as and when the vehicle started behaving erratically with sudden deceleration, several sharp turns in succession ignition cut-off and so on.

Carmakers started installing EDRs as long ago as the mid-1970s, even before chip-driven vehicles. The early EDRs were used only for airbag deployments.

As computer technology improved and smarter chips were designed, EDRs became useful in a much broader sense. By analysis of EDR records, carmakers have improved safety standards.

The authorities in some developed countries have used EDR data to drive design for safer intersections, lane separators, toll turnpikes and guard-rails.

Until recently, EDRs were installed sparingly and used for sampling and in test vehicles which would jump through hoops in crash tests. But many auto makers have started installing EDRs by default.

A high-end chip-driven engine is very likely to come with a bundled EDR. According to the US' National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), by 2004, between 60 and 90 per cent of various categories of American trucks and cars were sold with bundled EDRs. The customer may not even know, since there is no extra charge.

In India, EDRs are standard-issue in Mercs and in some other top-range models. But chip-driven engines are popular across all segments and greater EDR penetration in India is also inevitable.

This might be useful "" India has only 7 to 10 per cent of the US' vehicular density but the same number of road fatalities (upwards of 50,000 per annum).

Dedicated data-readers are required to access and export data recorded on driving-chip or EDR. The data-kit for EDRs costs over Rs 1 lakh equivalent, so few individuals will bother to buy this.

EDR data pertains to directional acceleration and roll vectors as well as to engine revs (RPM), recorded speed, gear/throttle/brake positions, ignition cycle, seat-belts status, air-bags status, turn-signal status, lights status, ABS activity and so on.

The NHTSA recommends a minimum of 29 pieces of such information should be recorded in EDRs and many EDRs can record more.

Since this information is useful in determining causes of accidents, it is often cited in the inevitable court-cases and blame-storming. Globally, some $ 450 billion worth of damage is caused every year in auto-accidents and sometimes the EDR is the only "eye-witness".

Insurers and auto-manufacturers access EDR data where available and law-enforcement officers also cite EDR data. Insurers verify claims, manufacturers defend themselves against malfunction lawsuits and the police cite this data in driving-related violations.

One problem is reliability. Sometimes speed-gun or video-camera evidence has conflicted with EDR data. EDRs do malfunction if power is lost, or a wheel comes loose on the drive axle, or the vehicle is even momentarily airborne.

These bugs must be ironed out before EDR data becomes legally airtight.

The other problem relates to legal admissibility. Can the EDR be accessed without search warrants, can it be "hacked", do we have potential privacy violations and so on? The law needs to catch up with widespread deployment of this new technology.