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"Black Box" recorder in Plug-in Prius

Discussion in 'Gen 1 Prius Plug-in 2012-2015' started by CraigCSJ, Apr 27, 2012.

  1. CraigCSJ

    CraigCSJ Active Member

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    2017 Prius Prime
    Model:
    Prime Advanced
    At pages 24, 25 and 26 of the Plug-in Prius Owner's Manual, it states there are vehicle data recordings and event recordings available in the "sophisticated computers." It appears that some data is recorded all the time, and some just in a non-trivial crash situation.

    The manual says the data will be turned over to the police, court of law or government agency upon an official request. It will also be disclosed with the owner's consent or for research purposes where not tied to a particular vehicle. The disclosure of the event data recorder is slightly different.

    Data recorded includes engine speed, electric motor speed, accelerator status, brake status, vehicle speed, shift position and hybrid battery status.

    Event data includes how various systems were operating, whether seat belts were being used, accelerator and brake position and speed of vehicle.
     
  2. SCDrJ

    SCDrJ New Member

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    Model:
    Plug-in Base
    I guess a lot of cars are starting to have these, but the law has recently changed in a lot of states to mandate that we are informed they are there.
     
  3. mrbigh

    mrbigh Prius Absolutum Dominium

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    Manufacturer's Liability covering their ars..?
     
  4. walter Lee

    walter Lee Hypermiling Padawan

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    Vehicle:
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    III
    The 2nd gen and 3rd gen Prii have black box recorders too.

    The computer interface use to talk to these black boxes is
    considered by Toyota as a corporate secret and is not shared
    with the outside world. Reportedly there are only three
    computers with this special black box interface - and they
    are closely guarded. One computer is in Japan. One computer
    is in North American. I forgot where the third computer is
    stationed. Toyota's black box computer came into the
    public eye during the 2009 "Runaway" Prius-Camry affair
    that put the head of Toyota on the Congressional witness
    stand in the spring of 2010. The black box recorder is part of
    a diagnostic system for the new drive-by-wire computer
    systems used in today's cars.