OnStar and Synch are the big names, but I know that there have been stand alone acceleration recorders in cars since the late 90s. They make 15-25 second records of the vehicles motion, braking, and lateral movement data, and constantly refresh.
I love how they say that they only collect this small amount of data because of “limitations in the computer systems”—not only is that answer weak right out of the shop, we do have this trend in computers of becoming smaller, faster, capable of storing much more data, and cheaper to boot (or “trunk” as you folks would say).
How long before you get automatic speeding tickets because the car reports back that you were above the limit? How long before your insurance company refuses to pay out on accident insurance because it was your own damn fault, even if it was an accident?
The alleged benefits of this scheme seem far outweighed by the negatives: and besides, we are talking about a computer system that’s just been involved in a serious accident. If you dropped your laptop (even the sexy SSD ones) down a flight of stairs would you trust that the data on it would be accurate?
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