The U.S. Senate has passed a bill which makes mandatory for cars to be equipped with a black-box starting in 2015.
An Event Data Recorders (EDR), commonly known as "black box", will record information about an automobile crash. A similar technology is used to analyze airplane crashes since mid-20th century. The device in airplanes records the activities of the plane, including its electrical systems and conversations of the pilots in the cockpit.
“Not later than 180 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall revise part 563 of title 49, Code of Federal Regulations, to require, beginning with model year 2015, that new passenger motor vehicles sold in the United States be equipped with an event data recorder that meets the requirements under that part," written in the Senate Bill 1813 titled "Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act".
Senators Barbara Boxer and Harry Reid proposed the bill.
The bill also said that the data recorded by the EDR can be retrieved only if there is a medical emergency from a car accident.
EDR's have been installed voluntarily in commercial automobiles for several years in the past. According to The National Institute of Highway Safety, at least 64 percent of cars had EDR's installed among 2005 survey. Cars manufactured by General Motors, Ford, Isuzu, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Subaru, and Suzuki were equipped with EDR's.
Some have raised concerns that the bill may reduce privacy problem, although the bill states that the owner of the car owns the EDR data.
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