] While most people are familiar with the black boxes in
] aircraft, which also serve as event data recorders, few
] motorists know there are similar devices in their
] vehicles as part of the system that controls air bags.
] Only 36 percent of the 38,000 people surveyed by the
] Insurance Research Council were aware of EDRs.
]
]
] But at least 10 million vehicles have them, estimated
] Philip W. Haseltine, president of the Automotive
] Coalition for Traffic Safety, a lobbying group in
] Arlington, Va.
]
] The most sophisticated EDRs collect pre-crash information
] including the speed of the vehicle, whether the driver
] was accelerating or braking and whether the seat belts
] were buckled.
]
] The collection of such information has excited a wide
] range of groups for different reasons, and EDRs have the
] potential to become one of the more controversial issues
] in the auto industry.

I'm not sure how I feel about this. On the one hand, I don't want my every (driving) move recorded. On the other hand, maybe people will start to realize that they're accountable for what they do in their vehicles. The story this guy is about, who was doing 114 in a 30 and killed two girls, makes me lean toward the accountability end. But coupled with a GPS and suddenly every move you make is recorded. Now that's scary.

Newhouse A1