The measure came into force on May 1, 2022: since Monday, all new vehicles circulating on European territory must be equipped with a black box. Cars, utility vehicles, trucks, buses, etc. To date, only motorcycles are not affected by this obligation, voted by the European Parliament in 2019.
Electronics are everywhere in modern automobiles, whose software can already, in expert hands, be talkative. But it will be even easier with the black box, the principle of which, voted in 2019 by the European Parliament as part of provisions intended to improve Road Safety, is coming to an end. The measure, applicable to new cars circulating in Europe, came into force on May 1, 2022.
All new cars are now equipped with this device which records a certain amount of driving data. Firstly, those 30 seconds preceding an accident or collision will be recorded. In the phase preceding the accident, the speed, the acceleration or braking phase, the wearing of a seat belt, the GPS coordinates, the force of the collision, the engine speed, the use of the indicator, will be memorized in the phase preceding the accident. the switching on of the headlights… But not the sounds inside the passenger compartment, unlike the black boxes of airplanes. Even less the image.
Following the model of the black boxes of airplanes which, in theory, make it possible to elucidate the circumstances of air disasters, their automobile counterparts, which are much simpler – at least initially – could help to shed light on the real circumstances of 'an accident. And undoubtedly to put excessive speed in its rightful place, too easily brandished until now as the explanation for every accident.
The European Parliament estimates that the installation of a black box in all cars would reduce the number of deaths on the roads by 20%. But for Pierre Chasseray, general delegate of “40 million motorists”, this objective is not realistic: “By hiding a data recorder in cars, we hope to deter bad behavior and thus limit accidents. But motorists should not be taken for fools: they are perfectly aware that as it is designed, this type of system cannot have any impact on offenses and truly accident-causing behavior such as refusal of priority ( 16% of fatal accidents), use of the telephone while driving (around 10%), drowsiness and loss of attention (10 to 15%). In addition, the recorded data is only kept and possibly analyzed in the event of a shock, 30 seconds before and 30 seconds after the event. The tool can therefore in no way prevent or prevent the accident.”
For the moment, only new vehicles are affected by this obligation, at an additional cost of around €100, according to the manufacturers. It will be generalized to personal cars and other used utility vehicles from 2024.
