How Black Box Technology Could Benefit Auto Insurance
Most people have heard of those famous black boxes that are used in airplanes to determine what is wrong in the event of an accident. These black boxes are virtually indestructible, making them effective data capture even in the worst crash conditions. This black box technology could be of great use to car insurance companies. A large part of a collision is hearsay, and auto insurance companies have to conduct extensive accident investigations to accurately process a claim. Incorporating black box technology into vehicles will save you a lot of time on investigation.
A black box is usually not even black, but usually orange. The outermost layer of the black case will be made of titanium or steel, which is designed to withstand intense impact or pressure. The second layer is insulation while the last one is a thermal block that protects against fire and heat. This makes the black box highly resistant against extreme shocks, the hottest inferno fires, and many other accident conditions. Isolation is effective for water shocks, so even if the aircraft is completely submerged, the black box will protect all of your recorded data. This makes it a very difficult and useful data capture tool on airplanes and any other travel vehicle.
So, with a few modifications from use in an aircraft to use in a motor vehicle, what could a black box do? And how will this help insurance research?
First of all, this special box measures the speed at which the vehicle was traveling at the time of the accident. This will help the insurance company determine if the driver was being reckless and driving over the speed limit at the time of the accident. Driving over the speed limit is attributed to a large number of motor vehicle collisions.
A black box will then record which pedals and operating devices were used in a certain period of time before the accident. This would help the auto insurance company determine whether or not the accident was caused by driver error. If a brake pedal was pressed at the wrong time, or gears were changed incorrectly, then it would affect the occurrence of the accident.
The log box will also record any other diagnostic data about your motor vehicle. It would record any of the details of your car’s mechanical functions. This helps capture whether or not there was a malfunction in the vehicle itself that caused the accident.
It’s easy to see why a black box in your vehicle would be valuable to an auto insurance company when they process your claim. There are already some motor vehicles that have incorporated this black box technology. Unfortunately, much of this recorded data was unreliable and is still in the testing stages of being successfully incorporated into motor vehicles. Once it’s up and running, it will be extremely helpful to auto insurance companies and therefore create a smoother claims process for policyholders.