Most cars today have Event Data Recorders that investigators use to recreate the accident. Does anyone here have access to their Plug-In Prius Recorder? What data do you see? What do we need to connect to the Recorder?
My understanding is that the readers for these boxes are considered very highly proprietary and restricted to a trusted internal group in the company. If law enforcement or whoever has a legitimate request for the information, the box has to be sent to this secret lab. Can't have those nasty attorneys representing people suing for some kind of damage getting access to some embarrassing data, can we?
The other issue is my understanding is that the recorder only has a very small buffer that it continually overwrites, and only when a crash event is detected will it actually start recording a good amount of data.
Not so sure the above is accurate anymore. Previously, it was the case for some automakers, like Toyota. See Yes, Your New Car Has A 'Black Box.' Where's The Off Switch? : All Tech Considered : NPR. I was listening to this story thanks to the NPR app the other day.
