Why Not? Black Box for Cars
Most of us don't want to think about the dangers of driving. That fatalistic attitude is wrong. It's possible to make automobiles safer and make money in the process. To see how, take a lesson from airplanes. The first thing people do after a plane crash is look for the "black box" (more formally known as the event data recorder). Why not a black box for cars? It would allow police and carmakers to understand what happened just before the crash. The traditional way of reconstructing events, looking at skid marks and steel deformation, is extremely unreliable.
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It isn't only that black boxes can make cars safer. They can also make safer drivers. The Berlin highway safety administration found that after the city's police department started using data recorders in their patrol cars, damage during rescue trips fell by 36%. Also in Germany, a taxi company installed these boxes in its fleet and collision rates fell by 66%. In the U.S., Sunstar Emergency Medical Services found that black boxes reduced its ambulance accidents by 95%. If there were a drug as effective in saving lives, people would be clamoring outside the Food & Drug Administration for its approval.
Just knowing the box is there changes drivers' behavior. Fear of getting caught may be a more powerful motivator than fear of getting killed.... <a href="http://www.forbes.com/columnists/forbes/2003/0811/084.html">http://www.forbes.com/columnists/forbes/2003/0811/084.html</a>
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