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Since when does a car become property of an insurance company when a person dies in an accident? Only if total loss and physical damage coverage carried.
I think this rule is part of Obama’s stimulus plan.
I don’t want to have to pay for the black box.
Promoted as a “safety” device, this is the next step to taxing you by the miles you drive.
OK – I knew there would be at least one dumb Obama-related comment.
Anywhooo…if the airbag deployment or crash ‘typically’ triggers the black box, how would speed or brake application (which would have happened prior to the trigger) be recorded?
Just Wondering, that was pretty rude of you to say!
Well, if this was to go through and ALL car’s that weigh under 8500 lbs have a black box. I gues all of the auto damage and BI rep’s will be able to work there desk at a faster speed of rate!
option number 2 is that the bigger insurance companies will begin huge lay-offs due to this new technology stating that this black box gives us all the information we needed to know and we just need to confirm it. Given the fact that the owner of the vehicle gives us the permission to view it. Wow! okay
One more form of government intrusion into our lives. Government assurances that they won’t always be turned on, won’t record, etc. Do nothing to put my mind at ease that privacy won’t be compromised….and sense when did the car become the property of an insurance company when it crashes?
I do not want or need Big Brother to track my driving activities……vote NAY………..
Auto companies have indicated for years they already have the information they need. Just another Big Brother intrustion in your life!!!
More scary – 96% of 2013 cars already have this . . .are they asking anyone for permission?
After this, the Dept of Homeland Security wants to put a black microchip in everyone’s brain that switches on when someone has a violent thought, then records the violent act if it occurs. It will not be recording all of our thoughts, unless we give them persmission. All in an effort to see if lives can be saved….
As long as it’s for the children.
Omg! Dave that reminds me of that movie with Tom Cruise where they look into the future or some sort of of a computerized machine and already know that you are going to commit some sort of a CRIME!
I feel it is an invasion of privacy. But, hey that is just my opinion.
Minority Report
That was a pretty wild movie!
As I read through these comments, I’m amazed at the massive paranoia in this country. Your car has anti-lock brakes. It tells you your gas mileage. Your GPS tells you when to turn. You enjoy all of these things. Each one of these devices can give all of the information required for the information above. Only when the word government appears, you all immediately look up to see if the sky is falling. Lighten up, world.
Paranoia is one of the most misused words in the English language. It means that you think everybody is out to get you. Being agitated about the latest intrusion into privacy by the most powerful state in the history of the planet is not paranoia; it is completely justified.
I thinking about starting up an Aluminum-Foil-Haberdashery business.
Since it’s likely that those of us driving late-model cars already have them, this doesn’t sound like much of an imposition to me. And since people involved in traffic accidents are known to get creative with the truth, this might help curb some of that tendency. Sort of like the security cameras that help catch the slip-and-fall scammers.
perplexed, just ONE of the differences between this and security cameras at the mall is the car is your OWN private property, not a public space. Why should we allow the government into your car, you wouldn’t want them in your house just to see if you’re smoking pot, would you? If they’re in most new cars, guess I’ll be doing research to see which ones they’re NOT in, and buy that model!
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So you would be OK with the United States government installing a camera in every room of your home? You have nothing to hide, right?
My “home” doesn’t travel down public highways and have the capacity to kill or mame another individual. Lighten-up.
SWFL Agent, the fact that your house doesn’t move is irrelevant; you certainly can do things in your home that harm other people. Government has assigned to itself the task of keeping roads safe, and has failed miserably. Now instead of correcting that by getting off their fat butts and watching the roads for dangerous behavior, they want to put an electronic spy in everybody’s car. Same as 9/11. Government failed to keep air travel safe, so now we have to take our shoes off and throw away our hand lotion. I never thought I would see the day when American men would stand by silently while their wives and daughters are felt up and porno-scanned by government perverts just so they can get on a private aircraft. Pathetic.
BTW, just where in the Constitution do you find the authority for the US government to order this?
Roland, I think you’re my new best friend.
We are concerned for several reasons, but the frst reason is the government has no reason to know anything about an individual’s driving habits, it is simply none of their business.
Using your “logic” it would be harmless for the government to track what people eat, after all they have nothing to hide. Of course all tracking costs money. We certainly don’t need the government spending more money.
Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you view it)I can easily see this information being used to deny claims based on reckless behavior. It will be interesting to see if any “slight” changes are made to auto policies regarding these boxes in regards to claim payments.
Since the sharing of the collected black box information would be voluntary, I wonder how long it will be before it becomes mandatory in order for the auto industry to get credibility in the stats they are seeking. Also, curious to see if police authorities will require owners to grant them access to such information as part of their ticketing/conviction process? Time will tell…
My mother’s family “escaped” from Germany in the mid 30′s while Hitler was still loved by the people for bringing the people out of a depression and the government was “creating jobs” and “protecting” the people through all kinds of “registrations”. I’m glad I’m getting old, because as long as we continue to allow our freedoms to be infringed and our lives to be monitored by the government for “our own protection” we’re going to wake up one morning in the Fourth Reich. History proves that it really does happen over-night.
Best comment I’ve read yet, Linda. Thank you. In the Land of the Free, government takes roughly half of what most people earn in taxes, and humiliates them in ways that the worst tyrants in history never dreamed of. Where is the outrage? As Judge Andrew Napolitano puts it, this has become a nation of sheep.
I would think the black box would work as it does on any airplane and give the exact location of the vehicle at all times. Isn’t this what the Govt. really wants?
I’m not a paranoid individual, but if I want Uncle Sam to know where I am at all times of the day or night, I’ll call him.
As for having something to hide… Maybe I do, maybe I don’t. The point is it isn’t any of YOUR business. :)
Time to engage the automatic pilot.
While I understand the privacy concerns that people are expressing and I concur. However, that being said, I work in the industry and can assure you of the following:
*It is difficult to obtain this information; you have to retain an expert and some vehicles currently cannot be downloaded without help from the specific car manufacturer; in most cases, via subpoena
*The information is limited to crash data- how fast, were brakes applied etc. Thus, if you were not driving like an idiot, you have nothing to worry about
*It is not (currently) a ‘tracking device’ similar to what Prog. and other carriers offer to track your mileage driven and charge you accordingly on your auto policy. IF (and I stress IF), the government does as it states it will – the black box data information will only record the above info.
*Lastly, this is your property as it belongs to your auto. The only way anyone else could obtain this information would be through subpoena (as in cases of auto accidents); we have had to do this in cases of disputed liability or fatalities (when there is no one to ‘tell the story’.
Only time will tell the truth on what our government will REALLY do….trust and verify folks.