Event Data Recorders (EDR)

[ajkalian]

I saw this story an it left me scratching my head. I've been working on my Camry for many years and thought I was pretty knowledgeable about Camry's but to be honest, I have never heard of an "Event Data Recorder". I don't know if it is in the Gen 3&4 or in the later models.

One thing that i found impossible to believe was that whatever these EDR's are there is only *one* laptop in the country that can read the information?

With all the cars that Toyota has made, this statement is just hard to believe. Here's a quote from the article:

"Toyota acknowledged last week that it has only a single laptop available in the United States to download its data-recorder information because it is a prototype, despite being in use since 2001 in Toyota vehicles. Three other laptops capable of reading the devices were delivered this week to NHTSA, Toyota said, and 150 more will be brought to the U.S. for commercial use by the end of April."

So if anybody out there can shed light on what an EDR is, how it works, when they started using them, what cars they are installed in, and where is it located.

Any information would be much appreciated.

Here's the link to the story:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...yndication=rss

[ghettosled]

i thought the gen 3s do have them. i thought i read somewhere its is a small plastic black box looking thing under one of the front seats. IIRC it perpetually records the last 30 seconds of what the car is doing. it keeps recording until the airbags are triggered, then stops recording and keeps those 30 seconds up to the airbag deployment.

...but i can be totally incorrect.

[LynchburgCSI]

What the heck...? I never heard of that in a gen 3/3.5. Where's Adam? He would know.

[fenixus]

yeah i learned about it quite recently too. so far was only suspecting some hidden magical only toyota reader compatible data stream from ECM. so this is really a separate box ?

for me too it's hard to believe there was only one qualified technician having this kind of toyota proprietary software installed on it ... story gets better and better ...

[WISHYWASHY]

i am more trouble by the idea that if these boxes exists to record stuff, then toyota must knew about all these braking and accelerating problems.

[JohnGD]

The problem with these black boxes is that there is no standard. LaHood said NHTSA is going to look into standardizing it. I think it's a good idea.

GM has that for a long time. Originally they were for testing. But now it really helps to reconstruct crash events.

As far as I know, the only person who doesn't want a black box read is the driver at fault. Now why wouldn't Toyota allow them to be read if the black box will help clear their name in all the sudden acceleration death cases?

Right, it gets better by the minute.

Originally Posted by ajkalian

I saw this story an it left me scratching my head. I've been working on my Camry for many years and thought I was pretty knowledgeable about Camry's but to be honest, I have never heard of an "Event Data Recorder". I don't know if it is in the Gen 3&4 or in the later models.

One thing that i found impossible to believe was that whatever these EDR's are there is only *one* laptop in the country that can read the information? With all the cars that Toyota has made this statement is just hard to believe.

So if anybody out there can shed light on what an EDR is, how it works, when they started using them, and where it is in the car would be much appreciated.

Here's the link to the story:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...yndication=rss

[camry6]

I have a gen 3 Camry. It does not have a "black box" under its seat, and does not have an EDR. I don't know how long these EDRs have been in use, but my 2006 Lexus ES 330 has two. Here is what the owners manual states.

Event Data Recorder

Your vehicle has computers that monitor and control certain aspects of your vehicle. These computers assist in driving and maintaining optimal vehicle performance. Besides storing data useful for troubleshooting, there is a system to record data in a crash or near crash event. This is called an Event Data Recorder (EDR).

The SRS airbag sensor assembly contains the EDR. In a crash or near crash event, this device may record some or all of the following information:

Engine speed, Whether the brake pedal was applied or not, Vehicle speed, To what extent the accelerator was depressed, Position of the transmission selector lever, Whether the driver and front passenger wore the seat belts or not, Driver's seat position, Front passenger's seat occupant classification (Child or Adult by weight), SRS airbag deployment data, SRS airbag system diagnostic data.

If your vehicle is equipped with a vehicle stability control (VSC) system -which my ES does have-, its Electronic Control Unit (ECU) contains another EDR. There is a variety of driving situations which include activating the VSC under which the VSC EDR will record certain information. The VSC EDR will record some or all of the following information:

Behavior of the vehicle, Steering wheel angle, Vehicle speed, To what extent the accelerator pedal was depressed, To what extent the brake pedal was applied, To what extent the ECU controlled the condition of the 4 wheels, Vehicle Stability Control system diagnostic data.

The information above is intended to be used for the purpose of improving vehicle safety performance. Unlike general data recorders, the EDR does not record sound data such as conversation between passengers.

Lexus will not disclose the data recorded in an EDR to a third party except when:

An agreement from the vehicle's owner (or the leasing company for a leased vehicle) is obtained, Officially equested by police or other authorities, Used as a defense for Lexus in a law suit, Ordered by the court.

However, if necessary Lexus will:

Use data for research on Lexus vehicle safety performance, Disclose the data to a third party for research purposes without disclosing details of the vehicle owner, and only when it is deemed necessary, Disclose summarized data cleared of vehicle identification information to non-Lexus organization for research purposes.

Check your owners manual, if it has EDRs it will be stated in the manual.

[camry6]

Here in North America, Gen 3 Camrys are 1992 and 1993, and have OBD I engine management. The Gen 3.5 was made for 1 year only- 1994. The body style was exactly the same as the Gen 3 (bumper covers and rear trunk lid tail light trim plate) It had OBD II engine management, and the V-6 engine was the 1MZ-FE. Gen 4 was 1995 and 1996. The front bumper cover had shorter corner signal lights, and the rear trunk lid tail light trim was different. None of these Camrys had EDRs.

DISREGARD THE ABOVE INFORMATION, I HAVE IT ALL WRONG!, I DO NOT KNOW WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT IN THE ABOVE POST. REFER TO "LynchburgCSI's" POST BELOW FOR CLARIFICATION!!!

[fenixus]

i think Toyota Corp started implementing those as early as somewhere between 2002-2003 (read it somewhere, don't remember now). probably they were suspecting that electronic drive by wire BS can cause unexpected trouble especially after aging, so they wanted to have a working EDR until introduction of it ... just my personal opinion - i would probably get flamed to hell for saying that in gen5&6 section lol!

[LynchburgCSI]

Originally Posted by camry6

Here in North America, Gen 3 Camrys are 1992 and 1993, and have OBD I engine management. The Gen 3.5 was made for 1 year only- 1994. The body style was exactly the same as the Gen 3 (bumper covers and rear trunk lid tail light trim plate) It had OBD II engine management, and the V-6 engine was the 1MZ-FE. Gen 4 was 1995 and 1996. The front bumper cover had shorter corner signal lights, and the rear trunk lid tail light trim was different. None of these Camrys had EDRs.

no.

gen 3.0 92-94
gen 3.5 95-96
gen 4.0 97-99
gen 4.5 00-01

[Velocity94]

Originally Posted by LynchburgCSI

no.

gen 3.0 92-94

wth? im confused what about my gen 3.0 94??? O.o

[LynchburgCSI]

Originally Posted by Velocity94

wth? im confused what about my gen 3.0 94??? O.o

it's a gen 3.0... if it's a V6 it was the only gen 3.0 that had the 1MZ-FE engine. the gen is done by body style.

94-01 1MZ-FE for V6
92-93 3VZ-FE for V6

gen 3.0 and 3.5 have no EDRs.