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Jerry Data & Research
How long does a car’s black box store data?
Do cars really have a “black box” like airplanes? And how long does a car’s black box store data for?
Matt Terzi · Updated on
Reviewed by Shannon Martin, Licensed Insurance Agent.
Great question! And yes, most modern cars built in the past decade or so have what’s known as an event data recorder, or EDR; a black box that keeps track of important information that could help determine the cause of an accident.
There currently aren’t any car industry regulations regarding what information an EDR records or for how long it needs to record that data. Some new cars don’t even include an EDR. But an EDR will typically record data for 15 to 120 seconds, consistently overwriting that data with fresh data as you generate it. Most EDRs only record when an accident is detected.
The EDR stores all sorts of useful telemetry data, and this data will vary from one make and model to the next. They generally tend to record the following:
- Vehicle speed over time
- The angle of the accelerator pedal, or how much of it is pushed down
- Engine RPM
- Steering wheel angles
- The angle of the car and its roll angle
- Detected vehicle impacts
- Angular crash force (forward, backward, and/ or lateral)
- Brake position and application
- Engine starts, stops, and stalls
- Seatbelt usage
- Whether airbags have been deployed or if they report errors
- Engine error codes
- Blind-spot monitoring and rear cross-traffic monitoring alerts
- Some advanced systems can measure driver and occupant size and weight, and even record audio leading up to the crash
How long this data is stored varies from one make and model to the next as well. Most will store their data for about three or four weeks, measured by how many ignition cycles the car goes through. After that, the data is written over by new data.
EDR data can exonerate a driver who isn’t at fault for an accident and save them from increasing
car insurance
premiums. The data is harmless and incredibly useful, so we can only home “black boxes” in cars continue to skyrocket in popularity.Here’s something else that’s skyrocketing in popularity:
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