Big Brother is Watching your Toyota Sienna
The 2005 Toyota Sienna (I'm not sure about earlier models) has an Event Data Recorder (EDR) which is a black box of sorts (sans the audio recording). In the event of a crash, near crash, or airbag deployment, it records various data such as vehicle speed, engine speed, driver seat position, gear selector position, etc. It sounds like if you are in an accident, your car could be a witness against you. Their lack of an adequate privacy policy is really shocking, not to mention there isn't any disclosure of this when you buy the car (okay, I admit, I didn't read all the fine print in the contract I signed).
Here it is, from page "iv" of the 2005 Owner's Manual for the Toyota Sienna:
"Event data recorder
Your vehicle has computers that monitor and control certain aspects of your vehicle. These computers assist in driving and maintaining optimal vehicle performance. Besides storing data useful for troubleshooting, there is a system to record data in a crash or a near car crash event. This is called an Event Darta Recorder (EDR)
The SRS airbag sensor assembly contains the EDR. In a crash or near car crash event, this device may record some or all of the following information:
* Engine speed
* Whether the brake pedal was applied or not
* Vehicle speed
* To what extent the accelerator pedal was depressed
* Position of the transmission selector lever
* Whether the driver and front passenger wore the sear belts or not
* Driver's seat position
* Front passenger's occupant classification
* SRS airbag deployment data
* SRS airbag diagnostic data
The information above is intended to be used for the purpose of improving vehicle safety perfomrnace. Unlike general data recorders, the EDR does not record sound data such as conversation between passengers.
Toyota will not disclose the data recordeded in an EDR to a third party except when:
* An agreement from the vehicle's owner (or the leasing company for a leased vehicle) is obtained
* Officially requested by the police or other authorities
* Used as a defense for Toyota in a law suit
* Ordered by the court
However, if necessary Toyota will:
* Use the data for research on Toyota vehicle safety performance
* Disclose the data to a third party for research purposes without disclosing details of the vehicle owner, and only when it is deemed necessary
* Disclose summarized data cleared of vehicle identification information to a non-Toyota organization for research purposes."
Well at least they wait until the police request it before handing over the data (not sarcasm!).
posted on Fri, 04 Mar 2005 at 14:10 | path: /cars | perma link
