American Vehicles May Have "Black Box" By 2015;

The House voted on a measure last May that would require all vehicles to be equipped with a "black box" that would record crash data. The black box would be equipped on all models include those found at a VW Dealer and a Hartford Mazda dealer. Every manufacturer including domestic automakers like Ford and foreign automakers like Nissan, whose models can be bought at a discount during Nissan Altima Deals, would be required to implement the new device in their manufacturing process.

The Motor Vehicle Safety Act is going to be debated in the Full House and the Senate is also considering a similar bill. The bill is controversial to some due to the use of recording equipment in a vehicle. The bill has an interesting addition of an emergency brake override system that could stop the vehicle in the case that the accelerator was stuck.

The addition was added after the recent Toyota accelerator problems, and it would require every vehicle to have this safety feature. Automakers that fail to report defects would be hit with an increased fine as well from other provisions in the bill. Somewhat surprisingly, the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers favors most of the bill, especially the "black box" requirement and emergency brake override requirements.

Some automakers already have a similar type of device. Toyota has an "event data recorder" or EDR device in some of its models. However, the device can not currently be accessed because of pending lawsuits against Toyota. All of the domestic automakers have "open system" recorders that can be accessed by law enforcement for crash data.

The bill is controversial to some privacy advocates who are afraid that certain data could fall into the wrong hands or who are worried about the device being used for other purposes. Legal experts say that the device would also not be a good idea to use for legal cases. The best use for the device according to ExpertLaw.com is to be used as a diagnostic for vehicle accidents.