Automobile Black Boxes

Tuesday 11 May 2010 - Filed under Government + Regulation

Yesterday, Congress heard testimony about the possibility of mandating small boxes which keep driving statistics, including location information, which would report automatically back to the federal government:

At a minimum, I also urge that the NHTSA be required to mandate recording of all the data elements listed now in its voluntary standard unless there is a strong reason not to do so.

Yes. There is most definitely a “strong reason” not to do so. Why?

the bill should require that the data be collected by the EDR automatically transmitted electronically to a NHTSA data base (with privacy protections for those involved in the crash as NHTSA routinely requires in its data collection). (Emphasis mine)

Though I’m not specifically opposed to having crash data sent to some sort of database so that we might make our cars safer, allowing a federal entity access to travel data on individuals, specifically that concerning location, is a slippery slope. One on which I don’t wish to tread. Private entities have far more reason to NOT abuse their place in the giver/getter relationship (read: we can choose not to buy something from a company that engages in questionable behavior, we can’t choose not to be fucked by the government should it choose to do so), and it seems that it would be a far more efficient solution than creating more government bureaucracy, paid for by taxpayers, which will only benefit a small subsection of the population (read: not everyone drives a car). Though there are other reasons this new mandate could turn out to be a terrible idea.

Assuming that these new black boxes are mandated by Congress in to law, as Jim Harper of Cato at Liberty points out,

1) The Constitution doesn’t give Congress authority to design automobiles or their safety features;

2) Only a relevant sample of crash data is needed to improve auto safety—overspending on a 100% EDR mandate will keep the poor in older, more dangerous cars and undermine auto safety for that cohort; and

3) The privacy protections in the bill help, but consumers should control the existence and functioning of EDRs in their cars.

We can just forget about Congress giving a shit about the first point. They’ve overstepped their Constitutional authority for decades, some might say since the beginning of our nation, and surely they’ll justify their zeal to pile on more government hurdles as a means to “protect us” from those greedy car companies. Harper puts it simply, stating, “They’re going to keep you alive, damnit, if it burns up all your freedom and autonomy to do it! It’s the beating heart count that matters, not the reasons for living.”

That said the second point is more poignant to the issue at hand. Why does every accident that occurs require data to be sent to the federal government? Besides the fact that we would have to set up a sophisticated system which transmits and receives said information in a protected manner, house this data so that it can then be analyzed by some government bureaucrat so that he might report the findings to car companies ad nauseum, we’re looking at a very expensive proposition, both for tax payers (unless large scale computer server systems, those who maintain them, and those who read and interpret that data now come free of charge) and consumers who will have to pay yet more money not because their new car has been made safer, but because government has set yet another mandate on traveling, bringing up the cost on a new car, all while NOT making that car safer, but some future, mythical car. That’s awesome. Pay for “protections” for which the consumer will gain no immediate benefit. I love paying for shit I won’t get. Most cars already cost too much for the product (ask GM stockholders, they’ll tell you), and much of that is due to government regulating the ever living shit out of the auto industry. Introducing yet more regulation in this widespread manner goes well beyond the point of diminishing returns. As Harper stated in his testimony, only a subsection of the pertinent data is required to form a statistically viable model for fixing safety issues with cars; analyzing every bit of data from every car accident would hinder those efforts by bogging the system down in a massive, bureaucratic pile of shit. One which will almost certainly 1) not be a viable system for making future cars safer, and 2) one which will add yet more federal government bureaucracy to the lives of everyday Americans. In the form of a little black box which follows you everywhere. And that doesn’t even begin the analyze how one is supposed to know if the box if functioning correctly, or who is to fix it in the event of failure, or what sanctions one might face were one to willingly disable the box or not fix it in the even that it does break.

The third point, much like the first, is moot. Congress doesn’t give a shit whether individuals want their data collected and transmitted. They’ll do it, and say that it’s For the Children™.

2010-05-11  »  madlibertarianguy