So the black box contains a sensor that detects your rar is inverted and nothing else? Not say a data recorder that logs how fast you were going etc so your insurer can decline to pay out if youm were 2mph over the speed limit or could be read by the police so they can procicute you? In this country and most of the free world you can refuse to give evidance in court that may incriminate yourself, as the insurence company will own the box, you loose that right, your car can give evidence against you.

The EU idea may be to get to an accident quicker, but how does it know you've crashed in the first place and not just stopped suddenly. Anyone in Europe can dial instead of 999 (or local equivelent) the emergency services using 112, this links the phone to the scene via GPS, now my thinking is that someone on the scene will call for help, if it's you thats crashed you will do so, so what is the hell use of a black box in the car that can do the same but dosn't know if there is a problem.


The reason it will put people off buying cars equiped with a black box is that one day it will be programmed to inform the courts (forget the police) that on such and such day you were doing 65mph on a 60mph road and a fine will drop on your doormat and points automaticaly added to your "electronic" licence.

 

I think there are situations (airbags fired or flying through the air upside down with your hair on fire) that could sensibly trigger an alert to "the authorities" - so I take back what I said about the eCall thingy.

Although, I deal with a lot of IT interfacing of various organisations (Fire and Rescue service being one of them) it would be interesting on the actual "How" they'd convey this location information from the car to the appropriate mobilisation suite, for the appropriate first responder service.

 

You get a discount on your monthly payment if you are a "good" driver and you don't if you're not.

Here's an excellent explanation: http://www.moneysupe...insurance-work/

 

Another thing not mentioned is if you do track days the unit will still be recording all of this data and if the insurance company chooses not to filter this out there is a potential for premiums to sky rocket despite driving in a controlled enviroment.

 

I recently took out one of these policies with adrian flux, and canceled it when the box arrived.

It is about 100mm square and must be stuck to the windscreen so cant be hidden behind the tax disc as it was sold to me...

It has a system built in that records any sudden deceleration/gforce involved in crashes and automatically phones the emergency services and asks if you require assistance. You can say no, but if you don't answer it sends them automatically, and also informs your insurers 'to speed up the claims process'

If it is recording location and G-Force what else is it recording... and I'm sure from location and G-force you could work out the speed you are traveling.

All that, and it also needs charging for a few hours a month. You also actually pay £200 for the unit and once opened it can't be returned.

Safe to say, it went straight back and I got a policy without one...

 

So you are driving along and some muppet pulls out and forces you to stop abruptly triggering the alert, you drive on and your mobile rings (can you see where I'm going here) You can't answer it as thats illegal, when you do eventualy find a safe place to stop you find yourself surrounded by the emergency services, now whos going have to pay the bill for wasting their time?
...informs insurers "to speed up the claims process", Last accident I was involved in was a simple back end shunt with no despute over liability, both of us were with the same insurer and that took more than twelve weeks to settle, so am I going to worry about knocking twenty minuets off the process. Come on who do they think they are pissing on.