• Aug 22, 2006  Starting in 2011, automakesr will be required to
inform consumers if their new vehicle includes an event data
recorder, or "black box". Such devices have recently come under
fire from privacy advocates, as manufacturers have been somewhat
less than forthcoming about information on the devices.  The
National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA)
will also require that any data recorder be capable of gathering
at least 15 pieces of information, but stopped short of
requiring that the devices be installed on every new vehicle.
Currently, over 60% of new vehicles include black boxes that are
triggered by the deployment of a vehicle's supplemental restrain
systems.  As expected, no one seems satisfied with NHTSA's
ruling. Public Citizen's Joan Claybrook was quite unhappy after
hearing that the recorders will not be required across the
board, while representatives of the American Civil Liberties
Union did not like the fact that certain issues regarding the
use of crash data were not a