Are our cars being monitored (black box)
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Are our cars being monitored (black box)
Does anyone know if our civics have one of those black boxes hidden somewhere? Just curious since it does track your driving actions. I saw on some investigative show, roughly 2 years ago, about how car companies were installing them in new model cars.
Last edited by lewal; May 3, 2004 at 09:00 PM.
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Yeah we have them, but they only track the last 5 seconds or something like that. That way if you get into a bad accident they can see what happened (the car comany that is) to build better cars in the future. Rarely they are actually used a court, and then I've only seen them used in cases where death was involved. I read one about a TA that hit someone and killed like 4 people and ran into something. The court found out he was gong like 170mph and never even hit the brakes. But yeah, only 5 second or somehting like that. They can also store stuff long term if your check engine light comes on, but that's only for engine stuff.
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as far as my knowledge, unless you have an EX the brakes are completely isolated from the ECM, therefore, i doubt the computer stores anything at all besides engine information.
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Ahhhh..... I do have an EX with ABS, but the ABS computer is seperate from the computer so that there is less delay to activate the system. But the hydrolic system used for the brakes is monitoried. Try opening the bleed valve and starting your car, and pushing on the brakes, the check engine light should come on, or it did on my friends '99 LX. Why he did that, I don't know. But it's just a little pressure transducer hooked up somewhere in the brake lines.
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jrfish, but can that pressure sensor determine when you apply the brakes? i mean, granted it can monitor brake pressure, but brake fluid expands when it heats up, so i doubt a single sensor can actually prove whether or not brakes where applied before a collision and monitor constant brake pressure.
I read in Motortrend once that the black box is intended for compiling data such as vehicle speed, etc, so that the computer can determine how the airbags should be deployed and stuff like that. But police can track down those data to see if you were lying or not. Read that some time ago, so I don't remember too well.
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All new BMW's have this option as well as most chey's
The C5 has a long term trace period. Its computer is extremely high tech. it manages and stores, tranny temp, tire pressure indicating loss, engine systems along with airflow systems...
it also does average mpg, top speed, and brake pressure. All which can be pulled out by a laptop cool eh?
the new c6 even has a G meter like the skyline that collects and stores your data so you can actually download it to a laptop and see how you shifted and drove your car.
yes the power of the computer ^.^
The C5 has a long term trace period. Its computer is extremely high tech. it manages and stores, tranny temp, tire pressure indicating loss, engine systems along with airflow systems...
it also does average mpg, top speed, and brake pressure. All which can be pulled out by a laptop cool eh?
the new c6 even has a G meter like the skyline that collects and stores your data so you can actually download it to a laptop and see how you shifted and drove your car.
yes the power of the computer ^.^
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yes the brake fluid heats up and expands, but when it expand it flows into the master cylinder to maintain a contant pressure, and well that expansion may be signigant for a gas, liquids don't expand that much when heated. Besides, if when the fluid heated up, the pressure went up a high pressure, wouldn't put automatically close you're caliper and apply the brakes without you ever touching them? That wouldn't be good... Secondly, they can also measure brakes by speed, if you slam on the brakes you slow at a certian decceleration that can be driectly link to braking.
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only for like the last 5 seconds... it takes me longer than that to pull up my drive way... It's not like the the new Ford truck that has a GPS system... Heck, if they really want to know where you where they just activate the GPS emeregancy system on my cell
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Originally posted by dober
AEM EMS will solve that problem
AEM EMS will solve that problem
Yeah, I know a little about Electrical systems in cars. My Electrical Engineering professor that I've worked under has done some consulting for car companiesin the desinging of their ECM's. So we have some
and swap car stories. The 5 second memory thing is actually federal mandate for all car by 2006
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