New rule: Car buyers must be told about ‘black boxes’ – another tell me something I didn;t know

CNN.com – New rule: Car buyers must be told about ‘black boxes’ – Aug 21, 2006

It seems all this old stuff is now showing up in the news. EDRs have been in some cars for over 10 years, and many cars since around 2000. I guess it takes a while for legislation to catch up to technology.

On the GM product lines, the EDR is integrated with the airbag controller, namely the SDR module, which is located under the drivers seat much of the time. In addition, there is a data link to the Onstar system, for purposes of triggering a call, should an airbag be deployed. It almost makes me wonder if there is software in the SDR, to query the EDR via a cellular link. I’m sure the folks at Onstar discussed it. The difficult part, if the SDR module is rom based, as contrated with flash, and as such, doesn’t lend itself to reprogramming to disable this functionality.

This was one module I never wanted to get too involved with. The chances of making an error, and hosing up key safety systems kept me far away, unlike the main PCM (power control module), or the BCM (body control module).