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Page: Profile: Wren's Nest News Local
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Article: 12652
[Civil]
Date Posted:
4/11/2005
2:13:31 pm EDT
Wvox Stats
Views: 13,961
RSS: 7,364
Comments: 6
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N. Dakota: Legislation Restricting Insurance Companies Use Of 'black Box' Data Wins Approval
Author: Dale Wetzel, Associated Press Source: Tampa Bay Online (FL)
Title: LEGISLATION RESTRICTING INSURANCE COMPANIES USE OF 'BLACK BOX' DATA WINS APPROVAL IN NORTH DAKOTA
  Insurance companies would be barred from using data from vehicles' "black boxes" to set drivers' rates, under legislation that won final approval Monday in the North Dakota Legislature.
The bill is aimed at computer chips that record a car's speed, braking and steering efficiency, and whether the driver was wearing a seat belt. The chips are common in newer vehicles, and typically store information that can be used to investigate an accident.
The House approved the measure 87-3 on Monday. The Senate endorsed it last week. It now goes to Republican Gov. John Hoeven, who is expected to sign it.
North Dakota is one of at least eight states considering black-box regulation this year, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
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Community Thoughts: There are 6 comments posted | Reverse Sort |
| More Things To Study | Apr 11th. at 4:25:51 pm EDT
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Terry (Irvington, Virginia) - Email Me
I have an OBD-II code reader, and am highly aware of its limits for not being a Scan Tool, nor even the fancier scan tools high end garages have usually not covering SRS or ABS issues.
Whaddidhejustsay? Huh?
The EPA backed a regulatory notion in the 1996 model year mandate that all cars follow the On Board Diagnostics, version II, standard, which was designed to be exclusionary from owners and home mechanics knowing what's up inside their own cars and their computers. A code reader inspects basic errors and status data, while a scan tool can read operating condition data that's far more extensive. Car manufacturers could easily integrate electronics for testing and maintaining antilock brakes (ABS) and airbags (supplemental restraint systems) , but usually design those to be incompatible, to force dealer service department work which could often otherwise be done at home or local garages.
All of this could be designed to integrate with a common serial port on an ordinary laptop, and require a $2 CD-rom of software the EPA could have easily mandated be included with vehicles like their owner's manuals, but instead they intentionally chose regulatory expense intended to force use of pro mechanics and keep most people out of their own engines. A good code reader costs just over $100, scan tools $300-$4000 for generic models, dealer computers $5-10k (including generic OBD-II scan tools, but proprietary SRS, ABS, etc, such that several can be needed for a family's cars to be fully accessible) .
Car computers may store data about hundreds of operating conditions going back as many as 400 operational cycles ago for a given vehicle. Police or others could easily plug in one to three computers, and read data intended for mechanics to diagnose in order to retroactively peek inside our private lives. Aided by the arrogant EPA regulations, joined by auto makers who helped develop 1990's regulations now in force, we're excluded by cost if not lack of time or ability for technical education from knowing exactly what data our cars collect and store.
There are major issues of 4th Amendment privacy and technology here, alongside the nature of auto laws and insurance as regulated industry. If we don't actively oppose police conveniently plugging decreasingly expensive scan tools into our cars, we lose our "reasonable expectation of privacy" rights to not have them do so without a search warrant. If we tolerate auto manufacturers making more effective diagnostic computers as the cost of doing so drops, we tolerate private data being available to others who might act within or outside the law to harvest that data. It could also be retrieved remotely without our knowledge via Onstar in vehicles so equipped, and police have in some cases intercepted Onstar information.
I would favor several key changes:
Mandate that disclosure to car owners include software and connectors for any owner to read all vehicle computers, including OBD-II, ABS, SRS, and any with equivalent storage or interfaces. Cost per vehicle, under $10.
Establish precedent that vehicle data is private, and requires a judicial order for retrieval without an owner's consent. This gets messier in cases of feuding spouses or employers issuing business cars with an agreement for limited personal use, where at some point less useful diagnostics are a serious option traded for less privacy invasion.
Change the entire regulatory philosophy of motor vehicle laws. Those laws were implemented decades ago, when cars were considered a luxury. Today, they're as basic as shoe leather or horses for food gathering, or assembly for political or other civil rights purposes. As such, their licensing and taxation is akin to illegal poll taxes, while insurance laws themselves are as valid as saying no one may enter a polling place, political rally, or print a newspaper, without funding liability insurance for libel or criminal assaults erupting from disputes (for which insurance would likely be unavailable and not legal, a de facto speech or assembly ban) . That requires a very messy inspection of what laws are for taxation primarily, or have severe 1st Am. issues, versus serve compelling public safety causes primarily.
Along that route, we are faced with the tactical challenge of addressing complex issues to voters and jurors who don't have the fundamental background or skills to understand the issues. The technology is easy to change compared to that hurdle.
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| Hmmm..... | Apr 11th. at 2:59:15 pm EDT
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Susan (Mayer, Arizona) - Email Me
Anybody with any bright ideas on how to take one out? Or does anybody know if taking one out will disable the vehicle?
Just because someone drives fast doesn't mean they are a poor driver. I see a lot more accidents caused by old people who can't see over the steering wheel (I once responded to a motorcycle accident where he was RUN OVER by an elderly woman who rearended him and just kept going, she literally thought she had hit a pothole--she never even saw him!!) or can't see at all. They are more of a hazard because they drive so slowly, swerve cause they can't see the lane lines, and pi$$ off everyone around them.
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