It looks like all cars in Ireland, then in Europe, will be equipped with "black boxes" in an effort to improve car safety. They are similar to the ones found in planes and used after accidents.
A GPS device tracks vehicle location and can interpolate speed, acceleration, and deceleration by calculating changes in location over time. A microprocessor decides when an accident has happened and sends a distress signal over a standard cellular link.
BusinessWeek Online published the original article, but I borrowed the above paragraph from a reprint by Wireless NewsFactor. Here are the opening paragraphs of the BusinessWeek article.
Imagine you're in your car driving to the grocery store. You're accelerating away from a stop sign when suddenly -- BANG! -- you're hit from behind by a speeding car that never even slowed down. Badly shaken, you stumble out. The police arrive on the scene just minutes after the crash. Plus, they already seem know that you stopped, and the other guy -- who's being arrested -- didn't.
And moments later, your cell phone starts ringing. It's your insurance agent, who also has accident details and is calling to reassure you that it looks like a quick decision. How do the police and your insurer know what happened? Because a "black box" in each of the cars told them so, the instant it happened.
This system is closer to reality than you may think. It's being built today in Ireland and is expected to spread across Europe over the next few years before taking root in the U.S. Insurance companies like the idea because computer-generated data about the crash will help prevent fraudulent claims and cut insurance costs. Emergency responders will be aided, too, thanks to faster, more detailed information about the exact location and scope of an accident.
The boxes, which are the size of two decks of cards, will cost about $300 and are not attached to any of the car's systems, making them easy to install.
If these boxes send data about your car, its location, its speed, etc., who will be allowed to access this data? Insurers? Doctors? Traffic officers? Privacy issues abound, but Ireland seems to ignore them.
By mandating that drivers use the boxes, Ireland seems to have snuffed out privacy concerns that have slowed the voluntary adaptation of the technology elsewhere, says Thilo Koslowski, vice-president and lead automotive analyst at Gartner Inc. In a U.S. poll, Gartner found that 57% of drivers said they would be happy to install a black box if it cut their insurance costs. But only 15% said they had no worries about the ability of authorities to locate their car via the GPS unit. "Earning the drivers' trust is the key to making [telematics] work," says Koslowski.
Now, Howard Rheingold, from Smart Mobs, alerted me about a new story on the subject, "Every Move You Make," published by The Feature. Here is the beginning.
BANG! You're hit from behind. Embedded processors in the car sense the impact. Inside a "black box" -- the size of two decks of cards -- a wireless module, which is essentially a stripped-down mobile phone that allows objects to communicate with each other regardless of distance, picks up on this. It uses GSM or GPRS to "tell" your insurance company. Your car is a witness and you can bet your premium will jump. In the same vein, if you're a model Sunday driver who makes Mr.Rogers look reckless, then your car is a character witness -- and you can expect a better deal on your insurance.
This isn't the future. This is now. Pay As You Drive (PAYD) is a new M2M (short for machine-to-machine, man-to-machine, and mobile-to-machine communications) concept gaining steam in the mobile space.
The most ambitious PAYD pilot is in the UK. IBM has joined up with Celestica (maker of black boxes) and Norwich Union, a major insurance company and UK operator Orange to monitor 5,000 cars and their drivers wirelessly. Norwich will calculate insurance premiums based on a risk assessment of data transmitted by the cars' black boxes. According to market research commissioned by Norwich, nine in ten people would prefer their car insurance to reflect how they drive (in every detail). So, there appear to be no major privacy concerns here -- yet.
No major privacy concerns? Wait a second.
Governments are also sold on the concept. In fact, a senior exec at a mobile company recently told me a Nordic government is planning to use the technology to monitor how economically drivers drive their cars. If you waste gas, then you'll pay a higher price at the gas station. If you drive smoothly and conserve, you can expect to pay a lower price. It's a good deal all around. The government figures it's a great incentive to conserve gas-and save the environment.
Even if the concept is attractive -- drive better, pay less, it's awfully intrusive. You can read "A Satellite-Assisted Pan-European Road Tolling System" for more information about the subject.
This article also looks at other M2M applications and services.
Sources: Adam Aston, BusinessWeek Online, November 7, 2003; Peggy Anne Salz, The Feature, November 17, 2003
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