Proposal for black boxes in cars raises privacy concerns

Many motorists don’t know it, but it’s likely that every time they get behind the wheel, there’s a snitch along for the ride.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration last week proposed long-delayed regulations requiring auto manufacturers to include event data recorders — better known as “black boxes” — in all new cars and light trucks beginning Sept. 1, 2014. But the agency is behind the curve. Automakers have been quietly tucking the devices, which automatically record the actions of drivers and the responses of their vehicles in a continuous information loop, into most new cars for years.

When a car is involved in a crash or when its airbags deploy, inputs from the vehicle’s sensors during the 5 to 10 seconds before impact are automatically preserved. That’s usually enough to record things like how fast the car was traveling and whether the driver applied the brake, was steering erratically or had a seat belt on.

The idea is to gather information that can help investigators determine the causes of accidents and lead to safer vehicles. But privacy advocates say government regulators and automakers are spreading an intrusive technology without first putting in place policies to prevent misuse of the information collected.

Data collected by the recorders is increasingly showing up in lawsuits, criminal cases and high-profile accidents. Massachusetts Lt. Gov. Timothy Murray initially said that he wasn’t speeding and that he was wearing his seat belt when he crashed a government-owned car last year. But the Ford Crown Victoria’s data recorder told a different story: It showed the car was traveling more than 100 mph and Murray wasn’t belted in.

In 2007, then-New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine was seriously injured in the crash of an SUV driven by a state trooper. Corzine was a passenger. The SUV’s recorder showed the vehicle was traveling 91 mph on a parkway where the speed limit was 65 mph, and Corzine didn’t have his seat belt on.

There’s no opt-out. It’s extremely difficult for car owners to disable the recorders. Although some vehicle models have had recorders since the early 1990s, a federal requirement that automakers disclose their existence in owner’s manuals didn’t go into effect until three months ago. Automakers that voluntarily put recorders in vehicles are also now required to gather a minimum of 15 types of data.

Besides the upcoming proposal to put recorders in all new vehicles, the traffic safety administration is also considering expanding the data requirement to include as many as 30 additional types of data such as whether the vehicle’s electronic stability control was engaged, the driver’s seat position or whether the front-seat passenger was belted in. Some manufacturers already are collecting the information. Engineers have identified more than 80 data points that might be useful.

Privacy complaints have gone unheeded so far. The traffic safety administration says it doesn’t have the authority to impose limits on how the information can be used and other privacy protections. About a dozen states have some law regarding data recorders, but the rest do not.

“Right now we’re in an environment where there are no rules, there are no limits, there are no consequences and there is no transparency,” said Lillie Coney, associate director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a privacy advocacy group. “Most people who are operating a motor vehicle have no idea this technology is integrated into their vehicle.”

Part of the concern is that the increasing computerization of cars and the growing communications to and from vehicles like GPS navigation and General Motors’ OnStar system could lead to unintended uses of recorder data.

“Basically your car is a computer now, so it can record all kinds of information,” said Gloria Bergquist, vice president of the Alliance of Automotive Manufacturers. “It’s a lot of the same issues you have about your computer or your smartphone and whether Google or someone else has access to the data.”

The alliance opposes the government requiring recorders in all vehicles.

Data recorders “help our engineers understand how cars perform in the real world, and we already have put them on over 90 percent of (new) vehicles without any mandate being necessary,” Bergquist said.

Safety advocates, however, say requiring data recorders in all cars is the best way to gather a large enough body of reliable information to enable vehicle designers to make safer automobiles.

“The barn door is already open. It’s a question of whether we use the information that’s already out there,” said Henry Jasny, vice president of Advocates for Highway and Automotive Safety.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said that requiring recorders in all new cars “will give us the critical insight and information we need to save more lives.”

“By understanding how drivers respond in a crash and whether key safety systems operate properly, (government safety officials) and automakers can make our vehicles and our roadways even safer,” LaHood said.

The National Transportation Safety Board has been pushing for recorders in all passenger vehicles since the board’s investigation of a 2003 accident in which an elderly driver plowed through an open-air market in Santa Monica, Calif. Ten people were killed and 63 were injured. The driver refused to be interviewed and his 1992 Buick LeSabre didn’t have a recorder. After ruling out other possibilities, investigators ultimately guessed that he had either mistakenly stepped on the gas pedal or had stepped on the gas and the brake pedals at the same time.

When reports of sudden acceleration problems in Toyota vehicles cascaded in 2009 and 2010, recorder data from some of the vehicles contributed to the traffic safety administration’s conclusion that the problem was probably sticky gas pedals and floor mats that could jam them, not defects in electronic throttle control systems.

“Black box,” a term for a device whose workings are obscure, is most widely used to refer to flight data recorders, which continually gather information about an aircraft’s operation during flight. Aircraft recorders, by law, are actually bright orange.

Some automakers began installing the recorders at a time when there were complaints that air bags might be causing deaths and injuries, partly to protect themselves against liability and partly to improve air bag technology. Most recorders are black boxes about the size of a deck of cards with circuit boards inside. After an accident, information is downloaded to a laptop computer using a tool unique to the vehicle’s manufacturer. As electronics in cars have increased, the kinds of data that can be recorded have grown as well. Some more recent recorders are part of the vehicle’s computers rather than a separate device.

Rep. Michael Capuano, D-Mass., has repeatedly introduced legislation to require that automakers design recorders so that they can be disabled by motorists but has been unsuccessful in his efforts.

A transportation bill passed by the Senate earlier this year would have required that all new cars and light trucks have recorders and designated a vehicle’s owner as the owner of the data. The provision was removed during House-Senate negotiations on the measure at the behest of House Republican lawmakers who said they were concerned about privacy.

“Many of us would see it as a slippery slope toward big government and Big Brother knowing what we’re doing and where we are,” Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pa., who is slated to take over the chairmanship of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee in January, said at the time. “Privacy is a big concern for many across America.”

NY set to auction rail cars, related equipment

New York is set to auction off surplus train cars and other rail equipment from a failed project to improve service between Albany and New York City.

The state Office of General Services says train parts will be sold Tuesday in Rotterdam and the rail cars on Thursday in Scotia.

It has already sold $65,000 in equipment on eBay, where the surplus items will continue to be listed until this week’s auctions.

The state bought the trains and related gear in 1998 to provide higher-speed service along the Hudson River, but the project was scrapped because of problems. The OGS says storing the equipment has been costing the state $150,000 a year.

Thieves targeting cars in Cicero area parking lots

In the past couple of weeks, iPods, iPads, GPS devices, jewelry, money, cigarettes and even a leather jacket have been stolen from vehicles parked in restaurant and store parking lots in Cicero.

This time the thieves are not targeting unlocked cars.

“They’re smashing windows, breaking handles, prying doors open and removing all of the contents while people are eating,” said Cicero Police Investigator Jim Meyers.

A van caught on a surveillance camera in the parking lot at the time of one of the break-ins is the only lead investigators have right now. The van is believed to be a dark-colored, late 90s to early 2000s, Chevy Astro or express van.

“It’s not a common van. There are not a whole lot of them around,” Investigator Meyers said.

There have been at least 10 vehicle break-ins and one was particularly upsetting for a family from Canada.

“They took all of their suit cases, all of their luggage, all of their purses, everything they could possibly get their hands on they had taken,” Meyers continued.

If you recognize, or know anything about the van pictured, call Cicero Police Investigator Jim Meyers at 699-3677, extension 18.

Should cars parked at broken meters be ticketed?

Should cars that park at broken meters be ticketed? The L.A. City Council thinks so. The council voted Wednesday to reaffirm the city’s two-year policy that makes it illegal to park at spaces with broken meters.

Times reporter Wesley Lowery will join city editor Shelby Grad at 3:30 p.m. to discuss the policy, which overrides a new state law that greatly limits the practice of issuing tickets to drivers who park at malfunctioning meters. Under the state law, motorists may park for free at broken meters up to the maximum time allowed for the space.

City transportation officials said violations issued at non-working meters generate about $5 million a year in revenue for the city.

Officials said that allowing the state law to take effect would cost the city a sizable chunk of ticket and parking fee revenue, and would encourage meter vandalism.

“Meter vandalism has become extremely rare,” said Transportation Department official Dan Mitchell. Since the city began switching to meters that take credit cards and coins — and banned parking at broken meters — only about five meters each month have required repairs, he said.

Before 2010 — when Los Angeles allowed free parking at broken meters — roughly 10% of the city’s parking meters were broken at any time, Mitchell said.

But vandalism problems declined sharply when the city began replacing its roughly 40,000 parking meters with more advanced devices that include red stickers warning that tickets will be issued when meters are broken.

The meters, which are expected to be installed citywide by the end of the year, automatically message transportation employees of operational problems and are typically back in service within three hours, officials said.

What do you think? Should broken meters be a rare gift to frustrated L.A. drivers or does free parking encourage vandalism?

Talking Tech | Peer-to-peer car sharing takes off

Looking to bring in some extra money, Dylan Rogers of Chicago saw an ad for car-sharing service RelayRideson Craigslist and decided to give it a try.

He offered his BMW for rent, and quickly started seeing $1,500 monthly. He liked the process so much he started buying other cars to rent out and add to his monthly earnings.

“The experience has been awesome,” he says. “I was skeptical at first and assumed the worst, that people would be rough with my car or crash it. But that hasn’t happened. They’ve been great.”

RelayRides, which is backed by General Motors, Google’s Google Ventures investment subsidiary and others, has come a long way since opening its corporate headquarters in San Francisco nearly two years ago. The company now has “tens of thousands” of members renting their cars in 1,000 cities.

RelayRides isn’t alone in pushing the concept of peer-to-peer car sharing, or paying your neighbor to borrow the wheels for a few hours or days. Relay competes withGetaround, another San Francisco-based start-up, which is available in San Francisco, Portland, Chicago, San Diego and Austin, and several other small start-ups that operate mostly in the San Francisco area. They include JustShareIt and Wheelz, which has an investment from car-sharing pioneer Zipcar.

But it’s Relay and Getaround competing the most. Earlier this year, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, actor Ashton Kutcher, and Google Chairman Eric Schmidt, via his Innovation Endeavors firm, participated in a $13.9 million investment for Getaround.

Some 10,000 car owners are using Getaround, which differs from RelayRides in trying to concentrate on specific markets before going broad, says company founder Jessica Scorpio. Getaround plans to enter at least five new cities in 2013, she adds.

A San Francisco treat

Car sharing is similar to another San Francisco phenomenon that went national — Airbnb — that matches folks looking to rent their homes to travelers in pursuit of cheap accommodations.

Now that RelayRides and other companies are starting to inch beyond San Francisco, ride sharing has gone from “niche” to “on its way to becoming mainstream,” says Arun Sundararajan, a professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business.

He projects that within the next three years, peer-to-peer car sharing will be “truly mainstream,” once several hurdles are out of the way.

“The advantage to consumers is that it’s a more convenient and comfortable way to pick up a ride,” he says. The cultural aversion to sharing the personal car, however, “is something that has to be overcome.”

Another is fear.

In Oakland, for instance, police have reported several carjackings when consumers selling used cars via Craigslist ended up stranded after they encountered potential buyers who stole their cars at gunpoint.

Susan Shaheen, a University of California-Berkeley researcher, says the heavy use of Facebook and social media makes renting cars from “friends” via an agency a safer transaction.

“You get to meet the people online, and they are reviewed and rated by customers,” Shaheen says. Additionally, the services can track the location of the car and ID, “which helps prevent those types of instances,” she says.

RelayRides and Getaround say no cars have been stolen from their services, although several have been dented or even totaled. Insurance from the rental agency — no charge to the renter — has taken care of repairs.

Recently, several states, including California, Washington and Oregon, passed laws clarifying that personal insurance isn’t required for renters who opt for peer-to-peer car sharing.

Scorpio says laws such as these help convince consumers to give services like Getaround a try.

Most car-sharing services work similarly.

Consumers can sign up on Facebook, register their car, upload a photo and wait for the calls to come in. The company sets the rates, and takes a cut, usually about 40%.

The e-mail and text inquiries from renters are generated by the car-sharing service, which handles insurance and billing.

With RelayRides, most renters and owners meet face to face to get the keys unless they’re members of the GM OnStar security service. In that case, car doors open via the service.

Getaround uses a “car kit” that resides in cars that allows for the opening of the car via an iPhone app. Owners can also do key delivery in person, Scorpio says.

Beyond making money for owners, RelayRides founder Shelby Clark says consumers like the bigger variety of cars such as sports electric models and closer proximity to picking them up. “Most are right in your neighborhood,” Clark says.

His goal: to have cars available within walking distance of 100 million Americans by 2015.

Earlier this year, Getaround introduced a new way for renters to get cars even faster, without having to hook up with owners.

Getaround’s “Getaway” service, which is being tested in San Francisco and Chicago, removes the paperwork. Like the membership-based Zipcar car-sharing services, there are dedicated lots with cars and a fleet available. Unlike Zipcar, there are no membership fees or cards needed to rent the car. Just open the app, look for the car and pick it up.

Getaround seeks folks who are willing to put their cars into the system for a minimum of six months — folks living abroad, students in college and others.

Instead of 40% commission, Getaround charges 20% for the Getaway service, but owners have to pay the monthly parking fees. The earning potential is higher, because it’s available 24/7.

In Chicago, car owner Rogers is happy with his growing collection of cars for RelayRides, a roster that makes him more accessible than most. He runs his operation like a business, with dedicated sites on Facebook, Twitter, Craigslist and Flickr.

“It doesn’t entail a whole lot of work,” he says. “As long as they show up on time to pick up the car,” he says.

Auction of classic cars in North Palm Beach brings in $11. 5 million for owner selling collection

There are two kinds of people who buy classic cars. Well, actually there’s only one — said purchasers are almost exclusively men. For some reason, women don’t bond with old cars the way men do.

Anyway. The first is the guy who wants to relive the passions of his youth and buys the same muscle car/jalopy he drove when he was 17.

The second is the guy who buys a car like he buys a painting — to possess something beautiful he’s never had before.

Either way, want supplants need — nobody needs a ‘67 Mustang. They just want it.

Saturday’s auction of the John Staluppi collection of classic cars in North Palm Beach went pretty much according to form. The house was packed and the bidding was spirited, with bidders from 10 countries and 42 states.

“It was incredibly well attended,” says Amy Christie of RM Auctions in Blenheim, Ontario, who held the auction. “It far exceeded our expectations.” (http://www.autelcn.com/)

Up for auction were 113 cars, more than 60 motorcycles, a carousel and other memorabilia. There were no reserves, meaning a price floor beneath which the bids could be rejected.

The total spent by the eager buyers was $11.5 million, with the biggest price tag attached to a 1956 Cadillac convertible, which sold for $299,750 — a new record for a Cadillac convertible.

The second most valuable car was a 1968 Shelby Mustang GT 500 convertible. The hammer went down on a bid of $264,000. “It exceeded our estimates,” Christie said. “Mustangs always sell well.”

Both cars were estimated to be big-ticket items, but not as big as they proved to be. The estimates on both were $150,000-$200,000.

The big money came out for other items as well. A beautifully restored carousel, basically a one-of-a-kind piece, sold for $460,000. Other hot items: a 1958 Chevrolet Bel Air Impala Custom Hardtop Coupe, which went for $198,000; a 1967 Chevrolet Corvette 427/435 Roadster, which also went for $198,000; a large-scale Lionel Train Layout, which took in $103,500.

In short, the market for luxury items shows no signs of saturation.

“Great or rare cars, with good documentation and important provenance can attract great prices,” Christie said. “The hobby remains strong. We’ve had a record year, with the highest gross sales that we’ve ever achieved, and we have a very positive outlook for 2013.”

Snow falls, cars crash

The driver of a car that flipped on Cotton Road at about 10 p.m. Thursday was briefly trapped but managed to escape without serious injury.

In Auburn, on Minot Avenue, a car slid into a pole, bringing down power lines and sending police scrambling.

They appeared to be standard traffic accidents but with one notable distinction: Police said the wrecks appeared to be related to snow that fell for two hours Thursday night.

The snow didn’t amount to much. It started at about 8 p.m. and was over by 10. It was a dusting, but in Androscoggin and surrounding counties, it was enough to make the roads slick and cause a handful of crashes, a preview of things to come as winter bears down.

In Auburn, the driver who slid into a pole escaped without serious injury, but police had to call for barricades to block off a section of Minot Avenue where wires were down.

In Lewiston, police and rescue crews went to the area of 105 Cotton Road for the car that had rolled onto its side. The driver was stuck inside his Honda but wasn’t hurt, police said. Crews had that crash scene under control at about 10:15 p.m. when another car was reported off nearby Ferry Road and on its roof. More officers, medics and tow truck drivers were sent to the area, but no crash was found.

At about 10:30 p.m., police were sent to Litchfield Road, a quarter mile from Route 126, where a car was said to be off the road, up against the tree with its tires still spinning.

Elsewhere, across Oxford and Androscoggin counties, emergency dispatchers repeatedly advised deputies that the roads were slick and that they should proceed with care while responding to calls.

By 10:30 p.m., there was just enough snow to coat the ground but it was no longer falling. No more was expected overnight, although flurries are in the forecast for the weekend.

Back in Lewiston, another sign of things to come: Police Lt. David St. Pierre said just minutes after the snow began to fall, he got his first call of the season from a local man wondering if there was a parking ban in effect. As it turns out, there was not.

Honda gets a do-over; revamps Civic to fix flaws

A 2013 Honda Civic is shown in Detroit, Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2012. Just 19 months after its Civic compact car hit showrooms and got slammed by critics, the company has revamped the vehicle, giving it a new look and upgrading the interior. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Just 19 months after its Civic compact hit showrooms and was slammed by critics, the company has revamped the car, giving it a sportier look and upgrading the interior.

It’s an unusual and costly do-over. But Honda — among the auto industry’s most highly-regarded brands — was worried the car’s flaws would hurt sales and market share, analysts say.

The 2013 version goes on sale Thursday, and Honda has given it a sportier profile, replaced its chintzy dashboard and made the ride quieter. The revamp comes to market in about half the time it normally takes, and shows just how concerned Honda is about falling behind rivals.

‘‘The new consumer coming to the marketplace looking for a compact car doesn’t think the Civic is a slam-dunk anymore,’’ says Jesse Toprak, vice president of market intelligence for the TrueCar.com auto pricing website.

The company misjudged the small-car market when it rolled out the Civic in April of last year, analysts say. Small-car buyers used to tolerate cheap materials, noisy interiors, and boxy styling just to get high gas mileage. But they now expect their gas-sippers to have a quiet ride, crisp handling and plush seating. The 2012 Civic lacked those refinements.

It was so noisy, for example, that ‘‘I kept trying to put the windows up,’’ recalls IHS Automotive analyst Rebecca Lindland, who says that competition caught Honda off-guard.

To be sure, criticism of the 2012 Civic hasn’t dented demand. Sales of the car have risen to 255,000 through October, up 39 percent from last year. The car has passed the aging Toyota Corolla and the Chevrolet Cruze to become the nation’s top-selling compact.

But the increase came mainly because Civics were in short supply last year following an earthquake in Japan. Loyal customers delayed purchases until the Civic returned, Toprak says. The Civic also is selling well because of discounts, he says. Dealers are knocking about $2,500 off the sticker price to clear out 2012 models. Civic discounts usually run about $500.

Without changes to the car, Honda probably would keep longtime customers, but it wouldn’t attract new ones. ‘‘They will eventually start bleeding market share,’’ Toprak says.

When Honda began to develop the 2012 Civic years earlier, competitors still were putting out blasé compacts aimed at budget-conscious buyers. But as gas prices rose, consumers shifted to smaller vehicles. At the same time, companies like Hyundai rolled out sleek, quiet compacts with amenities once reserved for the luxury class.

Shortly after the 2012 Civic went on sale, in the spring of 2011, the influential magazine Consumer Reports refused to give it a coveted ‘‘Recommended Buy.’’ The magazine’s chief auto tester said that the car was a step backward, and it appeared Honda tried to save money by using cheaper parts.

Company executives get prickly when asked if criticism was the reason they moved so fast to update the Civic. They’ll say only that they wanted to keep the car ahead of the competition.

‘‘We’re not reacting to negative criticisms,’’ says Art St. Cyr, Honda’s chief product planner in the U.S. He says that Honda started revamping the Civic even before the 2012 model came out. ‘‘We weren’t embarrassed. We weren’t trying to make excuses for what we were doing.’’

Yet Honda did something startling with the 2013 model. Instead of making a few cosmetic changes that normally come in the middle of a car’s life, the company did an overhaul. It added insulation to cut engine noise, put in thicker glass to reduce wind, and made the brakes larger to stop the car faster. The seat material was upgraded, and Honda added a softer dashboard with two colors. Outside, the car got it a more aerodynamic look with a new hood, trunk lid and lights.

The improvements are so vast that Honda must have started working on them even before the 2012 went on sale, Lindland says. That’s before the criticism came from Consumer Reports and others.

Lindland, who drove the 2013 Civic in advance of its Thursday debut at the Los Angeles Auto Show, says it’s far better than the 2012. ‘‘I was really impressed with how quiet it was,’’ she says. ‘‘It’s just a more refined and more elegant small car.’’

Toprak says the new Civic looks like an expensive luxury car, especially when compared with its predecessor.

The revamp is costing about $500 per car, Honda estimates. Toprak says the spending was necessary to attract new buyers. Many people who would have bought larger cars are now looking at compacts because they’re in fashion, he says.