Is That a ‘Black Box’ in Your Car?

2011-05-05 00:00:00　

Automakers Seek Delay in Implementation

Automakers are not part of this discussion and have been at odds with the standards group since 2003 when manufacturers left the initial working group, according to Thomas M. Kowalick, chair of the institute’s working group. Most recently, GM, the Association of International Automobile Manufacturers and the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, representing 11 automakers, have filed petitions seeking a year delay to the 2012 deadline for NHTSA regulations.

In an e-mailed statement, Wade Newton of the alliance wrote that the EDR implementation deadline should be extended because it was pegged to still-evolving car models. “For example, current models are being retained in some instances and it won’t be possible to re-engineer the EDRs in those vehicles,” he wrote. “So, without an extension of the implementation date, those EDRs may have to be switched off.”

NHTSA will consider this and other petitions in its final rule for the EDR, a technology that belies the size of this small, rectangular device.

“If you clap your hands, that time is what the EDR will collect. It’s measured in milliseconds,” said Kowalick, who has written six books on the technology. “If you want to know about the defects in cars or what happened after a crash, this is the technology that will tell you.”