[Sen Jack S. Fogbound]

It wouldn't take much a stretch of imagination to add more stuff such as drunk driving, smoking, cell phone uses, passengers, making out in the back seat, etc. The technology is already here.

At what point should we call it "over the line?"

[agitator]

As far as the state is concerned, it isn't your car anyway.

[Eala]

It's just that the CDR could be an expert witness at his trial

But is it a reliable witness? Can one be assured that this device was recording accurate data? That the sensor(s) weren't malfunctioning in some large, or even worse, small way? That the data storage element is reliably retaining the data written to it?

[Smoke6]

Very timely information. Last evening at about 11:50 brand new Lexus driven by an inebriated college student struck my house after careening through 3 neighbors front lawns, crepe mytles, hedges, flower beds and privacy fencing.

within 30 seconds of the horrific noise I rushed to the vehicle and opened the driver's door but no one was in the car! the driver had been thrown from the car and was on the ground on the other side of the car.

The vehicle was smoking and I couldn't turn off the ignition because the steering column had wrapped itself around the keys.

Police responded within 3 minutes of my wife's 911 call and took over. He's insured and they estimated he was doing 60mph+ on our residential street when he "left the roadway".

I wonder if this device is standard on Lexis cars and if my local police can access the data? Would be as interesting
as the two empty 40s bottles on the floorboards of the driver's side of the car...

[microgood]

As for people who don't use seat belts, perhaps Darwin has a special place reserved for them in his waiting room. But if the CDR data could somehow be used to get such folks off the road before the accident, I'm all for it.

Got the response below in an email recently

Anyone over 25 should be dead. To the survivors: According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, probably shouldn't have survived Some of the reasons: .

Our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paint. We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors, or cabinets, and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets. (Not to mention the risks we took hitchhiking.)

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.
Riding in the back of a pickup truck on a warm day was always a special treat.
We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle. Horrors!
We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle, and no one actually died from this. We ate cupcakes, bread and butter, and drank soda pop with sugar in it, but we were never overweight because we were always outside playing.

We would leave home in the morning and play all day. as long as we were back when the street lights came on. No one was able to reach us all day. No cell phone. Unthinkable.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then rode down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo 64, X-Boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, video tape movies, surround sound, personal cell phones, personal computers, or internet chat rooms.

We had friends! We went outside and found them. We fell out of trees, got cut and broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents. We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and ate worms, and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes, not did the worms live inside us forever.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's home and knocked on the door, or rang the bell or just walked in and talked to them.

Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke a law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law. Imagine that! This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers and problem solvers and inventors ever. The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all. And you're one of them! Congratulations survivor, please pass this on to others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before lawyers and government regulated our lives for our own good.

[Redbob]

Fairly easy to overcome: simply disconnect the "Crash Sensors" - the accelerometers.

And yes, I know that will disable the airbags: that's just a fringe benefit, when your usual front-seat passenger is a 110-lb female, wearing a seatbelt, who is more likely to be injured by the airbag than by a crash.

[flushed with pride]

Imagine the hollering when CDR technology becomes married to the soon-to-be-mandatory-in-every-vehicle GPS technology. Then the law enforcement and/or insurance industry can tell WHERE you were just before the accident. To have the latitude and longitude of bars, casinos, liquor stores, etc., logged into a GPS file (downloadable, of course) might prove to be very incriminating if the driver claims otherwise.

[onedoug]

I take my liability seriously enough to begin with as to not really care.