TheDope1: What's the harm in this? Everybody knows that there will be no cost to develop black boxes and put them in cars...

Um, for the clueless, those black boxes have been around since 1996, are found in at least 60 million vehicles, and are a feature in 85% of new cars every year.

Here's the 2006 NHTSA requirement to manufacturers to disclose those (already developed and installed) black boxes to consumers:

http://www.nhtsa.gov/About+NHTSA/Press+Releases/2006/New+DOT...

TheDope1: The federal government has every right to this data because it needs to know where you go and what your habits are.

And you're wrong yet again...

The bill is actually good for privacy in a few ways. In the past, there were questions about whether the data belonged to the manufacturer or the owner. This would establish that the data in the recorder belongs to the owner (or lessee) of a vehicle, meaning that interested parties such as insurance companies, dealerships, or advertisers won’t be able to collect info from your black box without your permission. The only exceptions would be when a court grants access to law enforcement, when an emergency medical team needs the info, or in the event of a National Transportation Safety Board investigation (I’m sure the gov had the Toyota accelerator investigation in mind here). Two wins for privacy here: insurance companies aren’t granted access to the valuable boxes and the bill says police have to get a court order to peek at the data under your hood.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/04/19/hate-to-b...

LOL @ the clueless.