Filed under: Gadgets, Safety, Hyundai
Automotive black boxes evolve
For now, if your car has a black box it's probably recording your speed, skids, steering wheel and pedal input and how many of your radio's presets are disco (not really). But PLK, a subsidiary of Hyundai, wants to offer you (or more likely your boss) a more talented black box. Their Roadscope device records all the above except for the bad radio, but adds lane departure warning and will take photos seconds before, after and during an accident. While it will be a big hit with fleet owners and rental agencies, priced under $300 the Roadscope could find its way into personal vehicles. Photo evidence could be a huge boost (or bust) during an accident trial.PLK's Roadbox takes the recording feature even further, with wide-angle video recording of accident events.
It's such a good thing these things weren't around when we were in high school. Bald tires on Dad's Chevelle were enough evidence to convict us of school parking lot burnouts and donuts. But video footage just might have had another judge convicting us.
A shot of the Roadscope and a sample of its video after the jump.
[Source: Motor Authority]
This is PLK's Roadscope with video recording capability...
And this is a sample of the Roadscope's gathered data...
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
DKB_SATX 6:19PM (1/03/2007)
And those of us who didn't already think Big Brother was watching can now get a little more paranoid! I'm sure there have been some cases in which innocent accident victims would've fared better with the sort of evidence this thing can record, but I dislike the idea of the Justice Department asking my car where I've been and how fast I was driving when I went there.
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TigerMil 7:09PM (1/03/2007)
So put a piece of tape over the camera lens if you want peace and quiet.
There's probably a way (or a niche opportunity) to put lackuvinformation into the thing. Perhaps a BF neodymium rare earth magnet over the storage device....
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James 7:09PM (1/03/2007)
All those worried about their cars monitoring them can go move into the hills and breed with their relatives. I want this - it would be great to have one in front and one in rear to document accidents. I would love to see this become standard equipment - and at less the $300 a unit it wouldn't add any noticeable increase to the price of a car.
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Sheniferous 8:09PM (1/03/2007)
yea yea... boo hoo... big brother is coming to get you. anyway, these things have been around forever. i remmeber seening a video clip of a guy falling asleep at the wheel and rolling the car, ending up in the backseat because he didn't have his seatbelt on. this was the company:
http://www.drivecam.com/drivecam-videos.asp
...although they don't have that particular video anymore.
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John P. 8:17PM (1/03/2007)
Sadly, people like James make up more and more of our society, giving up freedoms piece by piece in the search of safety nirvana. One day, James and his ilk will find it too dangerous for people to drive at all and we'll be relegated to passenger status, because we won't be trusted to do anything on our own.
Clever how he starts to make his case by belittling anyone against this idea as an incest redneck. Typical Elitist or Commie Socialist Tactic.
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DKB_SATX 8:42PM (1/03/2007)
#3, James: And you, James, can go straight to hell with your president and all of his cronies who think they're entitled to know who you talk to and what you spend your money on. The black-box data you want to show that the other guy ran the stop sign can also tell his defense attorney you were going 5 mph over the limit, thereby "contributing" to the incident. Buy one if you want it, but don't advocate having it as standard equipment.
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Tommy Miller 10:14PM (1/03/2007)
It is bad enough that "Big Brother" is monitoring our phones and computers. I say stay the hell out of my car!
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epp_b 10:49PM (1/03/2007)
Uh...no, I won't have my car, my personal property, something I paid thousands of dollars for, used against me, thank-you very much.
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bathtub gin 1:15AM (1/04/2007)
DKB_SATX - To which President and cronies do you refer? The "strategery" one, or the one who "did NOT... have... sexual... relations..."?
According to the list on this website, http://www.harristechnical.com/downloads/cdrlist.pdf, GM has been using black boxes in some form or another since 1994. Granted, the ones dating back that far were not nearly as scary as the one mentioned above, but this is not a new idea.
PS - got that link from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Event_Data_Recorder
They had a couple more links in the article, but that one was already more than enough.
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Greg 2:14AM (1/04/2007)
Everything you do.. everything you say.. can and will be used against you in the event you become a 'Person of Interest'
Stalin would have loved this!!
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Greg 2:28AM (1/04/2007)
Everything you do.. everything you say.. is being recorded and will be used against you in the event you become a person of interest.
Stalin would have loved this!!
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DKB_SATX 2:29AM (1/04/2007)
I am not suggesting that either Bozo or Cigarman had anything to do with the creation of automotive event-data recorders. James was blithely pooh-poohing the idea that any use could possibly be made of the data except to protect him, and I was bringing up the example of our current surveillance-happy administration as a group who will happily gather any and all information while assuring the public that "it's for your own good."
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Peter 5:42AM (1/04/2007)
#4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHFWGoZCkuU
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DriftPunch 10:02AM (1/04/2007)
John P. scores a goal!
A governments power is through the consent of the governed. The problem starts when the public starts to concent to everything. By default, the governments power increases drastically!
The irony is that often the biggest proponents of 'diversity' and 'tolerance' persue goals under the guise of equality that actually restrict personal liberty. Personal liberty is the essence of diversity.
The biggest shame in American politics is that both parties have adopted social engineering and restrictions to personal liberty as core beliefs of the respective parties. Each tends to drift toward restriction when confronted with the negative aspects of a free society. Neither has the gnads to stand up and say that freedom has plenty of negative side effects, but it is worth it.
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America needs to stay FREE and it won't with shit like this 3:52PM (1/04/2007)
John P and DriftPunch......Right on!!! You said it prefect with "Neither has the gnads to stand up and say that freedom has plenty of negative side effects, but it is worth it." America is starting to go down hill because of people like James #3. He bends over at the sign of freedom of any sort, but for people like you guys and I, we stand up for Freedom, isn’t that why were at war "Operation Freedom"????????? God I hate people that think the government knowing what were doing is a good idea...go to USSR oh I mean Russia dip shits.....oh I swore so now according to James I should go to prison....
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Schmidty 6:01PM (1/04/2007)
This is not just about Big Brother. I feel very strongly that it is things just like this that have lead to the complete capitalization of our government. We have been giving up freedoms for years, and it is finally to a point where many people are noticing it. But it is too far gone for us to be able to do anything about it. We need ot stand up as a people and demand our freedom back.
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."
Theodore Roosevelt
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Antisense 9:57PM (1/04/2007)
#3 James, you can have one up your ass too, so that next time when you shit, Bush and his cronies will get another idea of what they can feed to the American public and the world as news and intelligence reports.
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