IBM’s 'black box' to adorn vehicles soon

Kevin Smith

DUBLIN: International Business Machines Corp is to pioneer a "crash data" recording network in Ireland aimed at reducing the country's high road death toll and spiralling insurance costs, the company said in a statement.

IBM said it had teamed up with private U.S. technology firm Safety Intelligence Systems Corp (SIS) to provide the network, which uses in-vehicle data recorders similar to "black box" flight recorders in the aerospace industry.

"The network will improve road safety, speed emergency response times, fight fraud and reduce the cost of automobile insurance," IBM, one of the world's leading computer companies, said.

The gadgets, which immediately notify emergency services when road crashes occur and provide accurate and objective information about the causes of the crashes themselves, will be available for installation in vehicles in Ireland by mid-2004.

The data recorders are expected to go on sale for around $300 each, a spokesman for IBM in Dublin told Reuters.

IBM and SIS are introducing the system into Ireland in response to calls from the Irish government, which is grappling with one of the worst per capita road death rates in Europe and increasing public anger at soaring insurance costs.

In a statement IBM said it planned to establish, in conjunction with SIS, a European data bank in Dublin to collect and analyse the information provided by the black boxes.

The European Union has also identified such emerging technologies as key to its strategy to bring about a 50 percent reduction in road crash-related deaths by 2010.

Some 40,000 people are killed and more than three million injured each year on Europe's roads, with the annual cost to the EU of road crashes standing at more than 180 billion euros ($206.4 billion).

IBM's Dublin spokesman said the technology could have important implications for a range of industries including the insurance sector and automobile design, and could also be useful for public utility vehicles and taxi federations.

Earlier this year, American Transit Insurance Co., which insures 80 percent of New York City's taxis and limousines, approached IBM to devise a black box system for New York's crash-prone taxi cabs.

Reuters