Dubbed Cara 110, the new system is currently in its final trials in Europe and will be officially launched at the Show.
The system has been developed by Blacktrack, a small private company developing and manufacturing vehicle-related electronic devices in North Yorkshire and one of a number of leading fleet suppliers exhibiting in the state-of-the-art Silverstone wing at the Fleet World Fleet Show.
Blacktrack has been supplying its crash data recorders to insurers such as AXA and Allianz in Europe for the last seven years and this continues today. The firm’s current main product is a low-cost battery powered crash data recorder that is easy to install, lasts for five years and provides accurate crash data in the case of an event occurring, which triggers data recording in three axes, plus yaw pitch and roll. It has adjustable trigger levels and can be tailored to a particular vehicle and type of use.
Using this tried-and-tested technology, Blacktrack is now launching a wired-in box, developed specifically for rental/leasing fleets and taxi firms, as well as end-user fleets that self-insure or currently pay high insurance excesses.
Based on a permanently powered crash data recorder that Blacktrack has supplied to AXA for a car-sharing scheme in Switzerland, Cara 110 offers much increased memory capacity than the battery-powered product, enabling it to record many more events. It also operates at a high sampling rate full time, to ensure that every aspect of the event, before, during and after an impact, is recorded.
The device can be used to identify and measure incidents in hire cars – such as driving too fast over speed bumps and damaging the suspension – that walk-around checks will not find.
It can also be used to identify liability in the event of a third-party crash and in trials so far has been particularly effective in identifying the perpetrator in “hit from behind” cases.
Commenting on the system’s USP, Ian Hill, marketing director, said: ‘Black box technology is increasingly being used in vehicles but, in the case of commercial vehicles, it has tended to focus on economy and routing whilst the car sector has been led by the insurance industry and focused on driving style, not accurate crash data.
‘Like it or not, we’re all going to have insurance-related devices in our cars soon. However, we think we’re ahead of other companies in terms of providing accurate crash data.’
To find out more about Blacktrack, click here.
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