Event data recorders in powersports

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mikenixon
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Event data recorders in powersports

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Post by mikenixon »

In 2014 while still working for corporate Kawasaki as a training dept. manager, I was directed to discuss with dealers the fact that Kawasaki would begin publishing a statement in its owner's manuals revealing to customers the existence of event data recorder (EDR) programming in its ECUs (fuel injection computers). Industry media also began reporting on the emergence of EDRs on bikes at this same time, with a well known example a Rider magazine article dramatically revealing the emergence of these devices. All motorcycle manufacturers are using EDRs today, and all of the vehicles' owners manuals inform about this.

EDRs in some form probably began with aircraft flight data recorders ("black boxes"). In wheeled vehicles however the beginning may have been a joint General Motors and NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) project that saw EDRs used in a limited way in 1974, enabling GM to study collision data that helped them defend injury and wrongful death claims involving first-generation airbags. You know, those that killed old ladies and children and the reports about which scared the dickens out of a lot of us and which resulted in most vehicles having added to them an "off" switch on the passenger side. Not long after, fleet managers relied on EDR-like systems to tell them at what speeds their vehicles were being driven, and eventually insurance and law enforcement investigators began accessing vehicle EDR data in accident reconstruction, which they have been doing for some time. Interestingly, almost all EDR-bolstered criminal cases result in plea agreements, illustrating the dread with which the accused regard the stored data. The handwriting on the wall. Recorded truth.

By 2004, 70 percent of all cars had EDRs, voluntarily installed on the assembly line by their manufacturers. As for powersports, Bombardier, maker of the Sea-Doo personal watercraft (PWC) may have been the first powersports company to include EDRs, and the Kawasaki Jet-Ski followed soon after. PWC were first because they are over-represented in powersports vehicle personal injury claims, making data retrieval the most urgent in this product category. By 2014, the year before EDRs became mandatory, almost 100 percent of car manufacturers voluntarily installed them.

In 2014 a consortium including the NHTSA and insurance and doctor groups succeeded in making EDRs mandatory on all road-going vehicles for the 2015 model year (senate bill 1831 section 31406). Currently, EDRs collect information from 15 inputs minimum, including throttle opening, engine rpm, wheel speed, vehicle speed, braking force, chassis attitude, etc. Many EDRs can receive data from as many as 45 sources, including vehicle seat occupancy and cabin noise level. EDRs are fairly passive most of the time and simply pass through data, until, similar to an airbag deploy, they are triggered by an event. At that point the EDR preserves a 5 to 30 second long data storing session (depending on vehicle, model, and input types). The recorded data is of course encrypted, making unauthorized viewing and tampering difficult. However, several companies make readers available, which law enforcement, attorneys and insurance companies use in their investigations. First responders such as EMTs are also said to use EDR data to help determine the best immediate treatment of car accident victims. Powersports dealers are not empowered by law or expected by their OEMs to have retrieval tools and at this point this is not common, though the readers are readily available.

Privacy is understandably the biggest concern at present, and at least three consumer electronics companies have responded by offering devices which claim to turn your vehicle's EDR off. The courts are allowing law enforcement astonishingly wide lattitude in accessing EDR data, citing the "diminished expectation of privacy"doctrine that allows searching a car for virtually any reason, and blithely applying this to EDRs. Many privacy groups fear a widening of the scope of EDR data use and availability until the result is the constant monitoring of individuals. Currently, a third of US states have laws controlling EDRs for privacy reasons, making the vehicle owner the owner of the data. But parties having compelling reason for access are pushing these protections back steadily, with most states allowing law enforcement override. Several states require subpoenas.

EDRs are here to stay. It shouldn't be surprising. Not only do our sensor-laden, camera and computer equipped cars brake and accelerate on their own, and if some folks have their way, soon this will be without even a driver, but now our vehicles are finally able to "rat" on us. This is viewed by many as yet one more way in which personal freedom is eroding at an alarming rate. Even the most ardent supporters of EDRs regard them as a two-edged sword, giving while at the same time taking. Just as with street cams used in law enforcement and the myriad of other deprivations of privacy, we may be observing the promise of safety posing as the justification of the steady vaporizing of personal determination and autonomy. This issue on the motor vehicle front continues to divide earnest and sincere people, much as was originally the case with ABS (antilock braking systems). Perhaps as with ABS we'll one day look back with incredulity that we ever doubted the benefit of EDRs. But I'm not so sure. Brave new world indeed.
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