Mandatory Black Boxes In Cars Starting From 2015 Models

[M II A II R II K]

A Black Box in Your Car?


April 23, 2012

By Sam Favate

Read More: http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2012/04/23/...-car/?mod=e2tw

The Bill: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/112/s1813/text

If you thought having EZ Pass in your car would make it too easy for the government to track you, you ain’t seen nothing yet. The Senate passed a bill in March that calls for “mandatory event data recorders” (or black boxes) to be installed in all new passenger motor vehicles, starting with the 2015 models, and which would record data before, during or after a crash, according to KurzweilAI.net.

- The bill has a privacy provision but gives the government the authority to access the black box in a number of circumstances, including court order, consent of the owner, an investigation or inspection, or to determine the need for emergency responses. The same bill would allow the IRS to revoke passports of citizens accused of owing more than $50,000 in back taxes, according to PrisonPlanet.com, a website of radio show host Alex Jones – described by Rolling Stone as “a giant in America’s conspiracy subculture.”

- The bill — known as “Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act,” or MAP-21 — obviously doesn’t get into such speculation. But it does provide some additional rules that many might consider a good thing, including one barring “electronic screens from displaying broadcast television, movies, video games, and other forms of similar visual entertainment that is visible to the driver while driving.

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