flash1034

I was at my Porsche Dealer today talking to a mechanic (technician). He stated the 2005 Porsche 911s do not have "Black Boxes" but all Porsche products from 2006 on do. The black boxes retain the vehicles telemetry for the last 30 seconds of operation. In other words, If you are involved in a crash, your insurance company or the police can download the last 30 seconds of your car's memory. This includes steering wheel angle, brake force, accel/decel rate, etc. Just an FYI. Find a 2005 quick!

Flash

nyca

the use of this data is currently under dispute in many states. if you are involved in an accident where serious injuries occur, that's one thing. but in a fender bender, it should never be available to an insurance company or third party. imagine if we start judging people and assigning blame because their brake reaction wasn't "good enough".

SrfCity

Do they actually do this? It is getting harder and harder to hide from Big Bro.

mdrums

Take your GPS Nav units out too. ;-)

Vancouver83LTD

that's just how things are going
I think it's not a bad thing, in fact, it could absolve you in the case of an accident.

Holli82

Not a problem for me because I don't street race. Now "drivier's ed" could be a tough one to explain.

99firehawk

2005???????? sorry dude its back to 97 boxsters and 98 996s at least. the dealer can read crash events and the oither data is in there

PTEC

I dont have any problem with it. This can take a lot of the guessing game out of the eqaution of trying to figure out fault in an accident. The dealer reads crash data and you've got cold hard facts instead of someone bending the truth to try and get around the blame for a wreck.

Leader

Urban Myth, gentlemen.

Supertech

not so much urban myth!
data is used alot on big accidents especially when Porsche is beeing sued over it.

SrfCity

Good point. Yea, it's urban myth until someone's killed etc. and the lawsuits start flying.

cmoss

That may be true, but do we really want that level of scrutiny? Personally I'll take the low life insurance scam to govt/corp spying. I may end up paying more, but I won't give up a right to privacy just in order to save a few bucks on my insurance. My privacy is worth at least that much.

chris

allegretto

Aside from what you whisper to your wife late at night, what exactly do you think is private about you if Someone wants to know?

X2Board

Cha Ching!!

We already know what city he lives in it's 1984 and then some....

X2

clubrcr

No myth at all....

My race mechanic is also the service manager at the local Porsche dealership. He said sometime ago, a 996 was brought in on a flatbed with a serious engine problem. They hooked up to this so called "black box". He said they were able to tell the motor was zinged because of a mis-shift. They could tell when it happend, and how high the rpms were. When they told the owner, he said, no way, he was out of town. His son had taken the car out without the dad knowing and it cost the dad a new motor.

I don't know if it is a myth about the other part of the black box, but the electronics of the car are being recorded, the dealers are already using it.