Safety: Black-box for your car

What is standard for aeroplanes for years comes now to your car.

Also known as Event Data Recorders, these devices record information from a vehicle's various sensors during a crash - everything from airbag performance to the angle of the steering wheel to the speed of the vehicle is retained. Though an estimated 90 percent of new vehicles are shipped with the devices, each manufacturer uses their own hardware, software and file formats.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will rule on a universal format for Event Data Recorders in the next 30 days, according to Automotive News. While not going so far as to make EDRs mandatory in every new vehicle, the ruling will create a standard format for data collected by EDRs across many different vehicles. The Society of Automotive Engineers has been given the task to come up with the universal format.

Related news: Foursprung, P4MR, Black Box

Source: Autoblog

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