BC-ME–Automotive Black Boxes-Glance,150

A glance at the so-called automotive black boxes

With BC-ME–Automotive Black Boxes

By The Associated Press

An estimated 25 million automobiles in the United States now have so-called event data recorders, a scaled-down version of the devices that monitor cockpit activity in airplanes.

Vetronix, a subsidiary of General Motors, sells the Crash Data Retrieval System that allows the data to be retrieved from late-model GM vehicles and many Ford vehicles as well.

The event data recorder, which records the last few seconds of data before a near-crash or crash, is typically located under the driver’s seat or in the center console of a vehicle.

Data can be retrieved from the onboard diagnostic system port used by auto mechanics. If the port is damaged, data can be retrieved directly from the event data recorder itself.

The raw data is translated by a Vetronix device and then displayed as charts and graphs on a computer screen.

AP-ES-06-20-04 1230EDT