Originally posted by Matt 26z
Some of you are so paranoid.

It's not like insurance companies would have the ability to connect to these boxes and see if you've been doing 90 lately.

This would be a fantastic tool to find out what really happened during an accident.

The person who slammed into your car and killed people wouldn't get away with saying he slid on wet pavement after the black box revealed he didn't even brake until 2 seconds before impact.
I agree that this would be a fantastic tool to find out what "mechanically" really happened during an accident for example at what point before impact were the brakes applied. However, it still leaves speculation as to for example, WHY the brakes weren't applied until 2 seconds before impact. Could it be that the driver was preoccupied by a projectile coming at him in which he was in shock or panicked for a few seconds? And if so, does that make him to blame for not applying the brake earlier? And would that be grounds for his insurance company not to pay a claim?

My point is that although it may be a great technology, as with all great technologies, technology can often times be used for bad as well as good. If it is only to be used for good (i.e., to help auto manufactureres build safer cars) then what's wrong with having legislation that dictates that information obtained from these black boxes cannot be used in litigation to determine fault of an accident. To me that sounds like a win-win situation. I would however, be weary of someone who would oppose such legislation.