Airbags circuit logs accident speed!

Honest John Back Room » Motoring discussion
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Thu 3 Jul 2003 22:43
Airbags circuit logs accident speed! - Andrew Hamilton
Fascinated to see on theregister a driver caught by the data recorded on his airbag log.

www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/31564.html
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Thu 3 Jul 2003 22:54
Airbags circuit logs accident speed! - Aprilia
I think 'black boxes' vehicle recorders will eventually be required by insurance companies.

About 10 years ago I was involved in a project to evaluate 'spoken word' route guidance systems. There was a concern that drivers would hear spoken route guidance instructions (e.g. 'turn left') and follow the command without necessarily check that it was safe to do so. I was contracted to design a 'black box' that recorded speed and 'g' forces on the car (i.e. braking - using an accelerometer). The theory being that lots of high-g was indicative of driver inattention. About 100 of these units were then built and installed in a fleet of cars. At the end of the day the data from each unit was downloaded into a PC.
At the end of the trial (which lasted several months) the results were kept confidential, so I assume that the conclusion was not favourable. I've never seen anything published on this issue.
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Fri 4 Jul 2003 12:06
Airbags circuit logs accident speed! - J Bonington Jagworth
Fascinating indeed! Difficult to protest about in this particular case, though, if the data that he was doing 114mph (in a 30 zone!) just before the accident is anything like accurate.

The paragraph: "Data recorders in air bags can record a car's speed and deceleration and other data such as the pressure on a brake pedal at the time of a crash" raises quite a few questions, however. Where's the information coming from, in what form and how recorded, I wonder? Is it really 'in the air bag'?

Given that air bags were only invented because American legislators couldn't bring themselves to make seatbelts compulsory, it does look rather like just desserts...
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Fri 4 Jul 2003 12:37
Airbags circuit logs accident speed! - Andy P
The control unit for the airbag monitors the vehicle speed and and an accelerometer to monitor how quickly the car is accelerating/decelerating. Using these, it can determine when the car is suffering rapid deceleration as happens during a front end collision. When the airbag is activated, the car's speed prior to collision and the forces involved are recorded so that the perfomance of the airbag can be examined.



Andy
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