Vehicle Event Data Recorders — the "black box" of the modern car — have moved from edge-case to default in auto subrogation and personal-injury matters. Tesla, Ford, GM, Toyota, Honda, and most other major manufacturers now record extensive pre-crash, crash, and post-crash data.
What's typically recorded:
- Vehicle speed in the seconds before and during the event
- Brake and accelerator pedal position
- Steering wheel angle
- Seat belt status
- Airbag deployment and timing
- Engine RPM and gear position
- For increasingly capable systems, ADAS state, lane-keep status, autonomous-mode engagement
Modern vehicles also store extensive non-EDR telematics: call logs, contacts, paired-device records, location histories, and infotainment-system browsing artifacts. In many matters, this data is more dispositive than the EDR itself.
For coverage counsel and subrogation teams:
1. Preservation is time-sensitive. Many vehicles overwrite data after a power cycle or a service event. Don't wait for litigation to formalize before issuing preservation.
2. Manufacturer-specific tooling is required. EDR extraction tools are vehicle-specific and licensed. Forensic acquisition is not a do-it-yourself exercise.
3. The infotainment data is often more useful than the EDR data. Don't focus only on the crash itself.
We perform EDR and vehicle infotainment forensics for insurance carriers, plaintiff counsel, and reconstruction firms.