A major event in the global automotive-electronic market is that the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has proposed a new standard that would capture valuable safety-related data in the seconds before and during a motor vehicle crash.
The proposal requires automakers to install event data recorders (EDRs) — devices that collect specific safety-related data — in all light passenger vehicles beginning September 1, 2014.
NHTSA estimates that approximately 96% of model year 2013 passenger cars and light-duty vehicles are already equipped with EDR capability. A crash or air bag deployment typically triggers the EDR, whose data collected can be used to improve highway safety by ensuring NHTSA, other crash investigators and automotive manufacturers understand the dynamics involved in a crash and the performance of safety systems.
Examples of some of the information recorded include: vehicle speed; whether the brake was activated in the moments before a crash; crash forces at the moment of impact; information about the state of the engine throttle; air bag deployment timing and air bag readiness prior to the crash; and whether the vehicle occupant`s seat belt was buckled.
The new safety regulation proposed would require EDRs as mandatory equipment in passenger vehicles that weigh less than 8,500 pounds in the U.S.. The proposal includes the same standardized data collection requirements established by NHTSA in 2006 for EDRs that are voluntarily installed by automakers (49 CFR Part 563) and mandates that automakers provide a commercially available tool for copying the data. In keeping with NHTSA`s current policies on EDR data, the EDR data would be treated by NHTSA as the property of the vehicle owner and would not be used or accessed by the agency without owner consent.
(by Quincy Liang)
