Classic Cars with Bob Gelber

?
?This week, I was made aware of what I consider to be one of the most intrusive automotive devices one could ever imagine being mandated for automobiles. Believe it or not, it’s a Big Brother device called by the fancy name EVENT DATA RECORDER (EDR), that is proposed to be inserted into every automobile by 2008. EDRs are “black boxes” similar to the ones used in airplanes. They can record a lot of driving habits, including how fast you drive, if “you buckled-up-for-safety,” and combined with a GPS navigation system, where you are and even if you have made a full stop at a stop sign. This is being pushed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, (NHTSA) whose bosses have always been puppets of any existing administration. Has this government gone insane with power, with this massive intrusion of personal privacy?
Black boxes were originally mandated for airliners so that the recorded events that caused horrendous airline crashes, incidents of airframe, engine failure or pilot error, could then be detected. It is noteworthy that privately owned and flown small airplanes are not required to have black boxes of any type. With today’s technology, combine a black box with GPS, which incidentally was designed by the military to make “smart bombs” smarter, and you have a truly insidious way to track events.
I was wondering who would be pushing for such an obvious intrusion into personal freedom, and it dawned on me that it could only be one of the most powerful and wealthiest businesses in America, the insurance industry. Remember, one of the nation’s largest insurance companies was caught giving free radar detectors to police departments around the country. Not to save lives, but to raise insurance rates on those caught speeding! The same thoughtful folks not only left the people they insured in New Orleans high and dry, but low and wet when it came to paying out damages. They found and used any and all excuses they could, not to make payments on home damages. If the insurance companies had the information provided by the black boxes, can you imagine the claims that would be denied? Minor infringements like going 59 mph in a 55 mph zone during an accident could possibly negate your coverage. You know what I mean. We have all been forced into being a nation of scofflaws by unreasonable speed limits. If you drive at the posted speed limit on the Long Island Expressway, you run the genuine chance of being rear ended by another car, or worse, by a large truck. I’ve often wondered why the posted speed limit on some parts of major highways is the same as those of a commercially busy road, with many intersections, like some sections of Montauk Highway.
Maybe it’s about time the special interests groups didn’t run this country for their own profit. There is a definite mindset in Washington that the rich and powerful deserve to rule, and it seems they are winning. Believe me, if this automotive black box is implanted in all cars, the insurance companies will have hit a home run. It is up to us, the public, and especially all the folks that love automobiles and the freedom of the American highway, to do something about this impending legislation. I will do everything I can to make waves, big ones.
Talking about speed limits, I recently took a long road trip through the southern states, where most of the speed limits on Interstate 95 were posted at 70 miles per hour. The average speeds MOST cars were traveling at was 75 or 80. Many were going 85. All of these speeds felt reasonable and proper...and safe. Just keep a good distance from the speeding car in front of you. Virtually every new car made in the last few years is certainly very capable of traveling at these velocities. Of course, the comfort level of a Mercedes 500 is better than a Honda Civic at high speed, but both cars are safe, certainly much more so than some of the “high speed cars” of just a few years ago.
The advertising motto of the fifties’ MG was “Safety fast’“ and those low horsepower speedsters were lucky if they could hit 75 mph. The rakish 1954 Austin Healy 100 was called the “100” because it could break the magic 100 mph barrier, and that was with its windshield folded. Even the period high speed leader, the magnificent Jaguar XK 120, was called the “120” because it could reach that, incredible for the time, speed. Today, any entry level car can top 100 mph, stop shorter than anything made in the fifties, and out handle most pure sport cars that were made then. And yet, just like the fact that the Long Island Rail Road traveled from New York City to Montauk faster in 1914 than it does today, the major highways of America had speed limits posted in the fifties that were in many cases about the same as today. There is something wrong with this picture. With so much of our privacy eroding, we must not let every vehicle we drive broadcast our every move. Do something about it!
Bob Gelber, an automotive journalist living in the Hamptons, appears regularly on television as an automotive expert. You can email him at bobgelber@aol.com.