I have heard that in all the new vehicles there is a box recording all of my driving habits for that day to include speed, braking and G's. Do any of you tride and true Ford guys know if this is true. I just want to know if Big Brother is watching me...

 

Yes, Big Brother is watching... see this thread.

 

Thanks for the info wingn8ive

 

correction, it records about 5 seconds before an accident (continuous recording) but it does not record your day to day driving habits. it's not spyware in your truck, just something to go back to in the case of an accident. it's no big deal. there was law passed in California recently to restrict who has access to the black box info in an accident. check out this article:

http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/sil...ey/6844519.htm

 

Actually, the onstar system would have me worried. There's real potential for abuse there. I won't be purchasing it anytime soon.

 

would that make it the offstar system then? sorry, i just had to exploit the opportunity for a bad joke. i will go flog myself now...

 

Yea, it's the same type of device as installed in airplanes that records the actions and mechanics of you and the vehicle right before the accident. This way you can find out if an accident occured of your own negligence or if something in the vehicle malfunctioned. Also doubles as a nice precaution for Ford because if someone weird was to happen they could find out and look in to it to see if it's something that can happen to all of that particular model.

It would suck to be the person/truck to have to find a problem that way though

 

I start this post by saying. I use the data obtained from these devices on a regular basis. See the thread mentioned above.

d2alio is correct. In most collisions the data is used as a piece of the puzzle. The only thing it really does is confirm information that can generally be confirmed in other ways. If you are worried about it from a speeding or big brother type perspective, unless you have an unusual accident people like me can do a pretty good job of figuring out how fast you were going even without this data.

The device does not continously record. It only continously monitors the data and will only record when the airbag sensor "wakes up". That is, sees enough force that it figures out whether it needs to deploy the airbags. People who drive normally have nothing to worry about from these devices.

For those of you cheering about the privacy thing, carefully read your insurance policy. If you do, you will find that not giving them permission is a reason for them to deny your claim. It is boilerplate (standard) language in most policies. Now what it does do, is prevent someone from just walking up and getting the data. In other words, if I am working with the insurance company of the guy that hit you, I can't just come get the information out of your vehicle.

 

Thanx to all for your expertise. I feel better now that I have the facts. Yet another reason I love this web site.

 

They are in the 03's as well