The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has proposed a new unified standard for event data recorders for cars, commonly known as “black boxes.”

Such devices, which are already in use in 96 percent of 2013 model year cars, record various types of data that can be accessed in multiple ways. The agency also estimates that 92 percent of 2010 model year cars have “some EDR capability.” The NHTSA estimates that requiring EDRs would add just $20 in manufacturing costs to each car.

As we reported earlier this year, Congress has two related, pending bills on car EDRs that have not yet been reconciled between the two houses. The new NHTSA rule would require EDRs in all new light passenger vehicles starting in September 1, 2014, and would prescribe what type of data is to be collected.

"By understanding how drivers respond in a crash and whether key safety systems operate properly, NHTSA and automakers can make our vehicles and our roadways even safer," said Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood in a statement on Friday. "This proposal will give us the critical insight and information we need to save more lives."

Who owns the black box data?

As per NHTSA's proposed rule, the collected data would include vehicle speed, whether the brake had been activated, crash forces at the moment of impact, the state of the engine throttle, airbag deployment timing, and whether or not seatbelts were in use.

Since 2006 the NHTSA established recommended guidelines for EDRs, but did not mandate them. As we reported in April 2012, car manufacturers have been required to disclose the presence and physical location of an EDR in a car's owner's manual since 2011. Seven years earlier, California became the first state to mandate such disclosure.

The NHTSA has a policy that EDR data would be treated as the property of the vehicle owner and not accessed without his or her permission. The agency also noted in its new 56-page document (PDF) that it “does not have any authority to establish legally-binding rules regarding the ownership or use of a vehicle’s EDR data.”

Securing the black box data with a key

However, many activists feel that NHTSA and Congress have not done enough to protect and preserve that EDR data.

The biggest champions of further revision are a team at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) that has been pushing for an EDR standard, which would include requiring a "connector lockout," or a way to physically secure access to the EDR data, in addition to standardizing what data was collected. A two-person team published a draft standard in 2004, which was later revised in 2010.

Tom Kowalick, President of Airmika, Inc. in Southern Pines, NC, and one of the co-authors of that public draft IEEE standard (known as “1616a”) on auto EDRs met with officials from the Office of Management and Budget on this issue in November 2012.

In anticipation of the IEEE standard becoming more widespread, Kowalick has already released a $30 device this week on Amazon.com that would provide a physical lockout based on the 1616a draft standard.

“The main concern of the IEEE standard is that at the time of the vehicle crash the crash data is secure so [that] it has probative value in a court of law and that it has scientific value,” he told Ars, noting that it was trivial for anyone to tamper with this data at present.