Yup, some automakers have had 'em for awhile. My '98 Firebird had one - basically it gets triggered by the CEL and takes a "snapshot" of all pertinent data at time of activation of CEL. Such things as rpm, speed, throttle position, etc etc. GM was famous for using it to deny "some" warranty claims on the basis of "abuse".

 

Apparently they are starting to use these boxes in court now. Since they record what the driver was doing, including seat belt use. There are about 10 states that have made it legal evidence. There reason all states haven't started using them is because they can be made inaccurate when modification are done to the car such as different size wheels. The biggest issue has been that companies are not required to tell the consumer if their car has one or not. This is bad because basically what it amounts to is having big brother watching you at all times even when you are unaware.

 

No one can watch you, really, until you get in a accident.

 

I understand that, but it's still not right if you are unaware. It's like if you bought a new house, then one night you are smoking weed in your bedroom and all of a sudden the cops bust down your door and arrest you. Come to find out they have cameras installed in your house that you never knew about.

 

Correction, better analogy. They don't have camera's, they have sensors that can pick up illegal smoke.

 

Good point, big time. It is messed up, but thats how our Country is turning, lol...

It happens, i'm not too worried about it, i completely see how its just tnot right, I don't think its right either, but what can we do besides complain? :/

~2 weeks til I get to take my car home Gr.

 

I was just thinking of this. What if you were driving home in the middle of the night one time and you were speeding. A few days later you get a ticket in the mail stating the date, time and location of the act. Then they state how this information was collected: THE BLACK BOX!!! That would be crazy. lol

 

i remember the " black box" in my s-10, but not sure on the evo.

 

If you want really scary... There's talk of eliminating road tax on gasoline and just using a gps monitor to charge you fees. Toll road fees, road maintenance fees, doing 140 in a 35 fees.... Yeah, just like a freaking anime cartoon except for real. OnStar combines with Mobil speedpass and all attached to either your car or your DL. Think I'm full of BS? Wait and see. 10 years ago a terra-byte was hard core science fiction, the maintenance guy at work has 3.2 terra-bytes of storage in his home network. The future seems exciting but in reality it sucks!

 

LOL, I saw a really old X files awhile ago, there was a mainframe with 10 8GB drives for a HEARTSTOPPING capacity of 80GBs!! Remember when 2 MILLION cycles per second (2mhz) was incredible! 3ghz (3 billion cycles per second) is now the norm. Pretty weird, and funny. Dunno what the vacuum tube computers could do, like 10,000 cycles per second, if that OK, OK

 

Can the black boxes be disabled?

 

if you disable them it will probably be in a "loop" that if it's not functional neither is your car.

I see it in the near future that cops will have a radar detector that connects to the "ECU" or some type of controlled unit and can check your speed... therefore annihilation of targeting the wrong person... your vehicle data would come up and it would show you their logging speeds... kind of like a dyno.. i think

 

Most of the newer cars have the Blackboxes connected to the Airbags, so if you disconnect them, your airbags won't work, or they will go off.

 

Damn, that's a truly scary thought. Though it's definitely possible in the near future, I really doubt that more than 5% of the nation's police departments could afford that kind of technology soon (at least in California). My dad's been working for San Jose PD for 26 years and they're worse off money-wise now than ever. Either way, it will be a problem for us one day .

 

/\ /\ /\ yes, scary thought. I know in England for the last several years now, no new car be sold unless it has the (chip?) capability to be turned off by satelite as well. I imagine those are being installed in ours as well. Not bad if you're not a criminal, they say, but I say it is all about govt. gabbing more power over the individual. I would disable both of those devices if I knew how & it does not affect the driveability.

thanks DiamondWhite and Saffyre for the info.