Your car will now have a black box recorder...

The U.S. Senate has passed a bill requiring all new cars manufactured in the United States be fitted with black box data recorders. Senate Bill 1813 [PDF] was passed by the Senate and is just waiting for approval from the U.S. House of Representatives.  According to the text of the bill, the data on the recording device may not be retrieved by anyone other than the owner or the lessee…unless, of course, the government asks for it.  We can thank the Patriot Act for that one....geez.

The data may be retrieved by someone other than the owner/lessee if it is requested, and backed, by a court authorization, or if there is a medical emergency. It may also be retrieved if the owner/lessee consents, or if it's relevant in an investigation or inspection conducted by the Secretary of Transportation.

Now to make you feel better, Event Data Recorders (EDRs) have been voluntarily installed in cars for several years. In fact, VentureBeat reports, at least 64 percent of cars in surveyed in 2005 had an EDR installed, including 100 percent of cars made by General Motors, Ford, Isuzu, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Subaru, and Suzuki.  Is there anything left that is truly private?