Today I saw this article on BoingBoing and my friend Cam and I were discussing it while riding in a Taxicab to downtown Austin. (I'm still here for SXSW 2003.)

I mentioned that cab companies around the country already keep information on every pick-up and drop off that takes place, and that the information is already available to the cops without a subpoena or anything. The cops often need a witness or something when a crime has been committed, and can then ask whatever cabby might have been in the area at that time (like in Law and Order). (I gleaned these facts some time ago from my cabbies back home in San Francisco.)

Our Austin cab driver told us that they've had black boxes in Austin for years. That the cops know exactly where every driver is at all times within 10 feet (theoretically), and that they can tell everytime the meter is started or paused, idling, etc., and when the engine turns off and on, etc.

The only way to drive anonymously is to turn everything off inside the car: the meter, blackbloxes, gps, etc. None of the other devices will work without the black box on. (Note: the car itself will operate without the monitoring equipment on.)

Of course, if you turn everything else off, then that in itself looks suspicious (we all mused).

It would appear that the devices currently installed within all of the cabs in Austin, TX already go far above and beyond those described in this WSJ article.

Here's the WSJ article on the subject written by William M. Bulkeley:

Taxis Soon May Acquire Their Own 'Black Boxes'

The devices, somewhat like the "black boxes" in commercial airliners, will sense a crash and automatically report data on speed, location, brake pressure and number of passengers to a crash-records depository run by International Business Machines Corp., Armonk, N.Y.

Ralph Bisceglia, director of American Transit, said it expects to get "important feedback on auto-safety features," and to combat fraud. For example, if a cab driver claims he "was under the speed limit and the passenger claims he was speeding, the box will tell you," he said.

The program illustrates the growing interest of insurers and fleet owners in using "telematics" in vehicles to remotely monitor what drivers do, where they go and how the vehicle is performing.

Here is the full text of the article in case the link goes bad:

http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB104752623581462300,00.html?mod=telecommunications%5Fprimary%5Fhs

Taxis Soon May Acquire
Their Own 'Black Boxes'

By WILLIAM M. BULKELEY
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Crash-prone New York taxi drivers could soon confront a new witness when explaining accidents to insurers: a black box connected to their car's controls that senses precrash speed and other factors.

Closely held American Transit Insurance Co., New York, which insures 80% of the taxis and limousines in the Big Apple, said the devices will be installed late this summer. The company plans to offer $300 insurance discounts to induce owners of as many as 1,500 cabs to take part.

The devices, somewhat like the "black boxes" in commercial airliners, will sense a crash and automatically report data on speed, location, brake pressure and number of passengers to a crash-records depository run by International Business Machines Corp., Armonk, N.Y.

Ralph Bisceglia, director of American Transit, said it expects to get "important feedback on auto-safety features," and to combat fraud. For example, if a cab driver claims he "was under the speed limit and the passenger claims he was speeding, the box will tell you," he said.

The program illustrates the growing interest of insurers and fleet owners in using "telematics" in vehicles to remotely monitor what drivers do, where they go and how the vehicle is performing.

Wednesday, IBM and Norwich Union, a car-insurance unit of Britain's Aviva PLC, announced plans to put black boxes in 5,000 volunteers' cars. The aim is to see whether people who drive less should get lower insurance rates. That program could raise invasion-of-privacy issues, because it keep tabs on when, where and how much the cars are driven.

Jim Ruthven, IBM's program director for telematics, said the taxi program shouldn't raise similar concerns, because data would be sent to computer systems only when a crash occurred. IBM, which is developing what it expects will be a large business in telematics for monitoring and communicating with automobiles, is helping design the system and will run it.

The in-car devices take advantage of the multitude of sensors auto makers have deployed in cars, often under government mandates, to monitor emissions and detect passenger presence for air-bag and seat-belt systems. Normally the information stays in the car, but in the taxi system, IBM plans to connect the sensors to a black box the size of a cigarette pack that would send five seconds worth of data about the car as a text message over the cellphone network, every time an air bag exploded.

The black boxes for taxis will be custom-designed, but ultimately will cost a few hundred dollars a vehicle, IBM predicts.

The program also involves Safety Intelligence Systems Corp., a Atlanta, Ga., company established by Ricardo Martinez, former head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Safety Intelligence is developing a central data repository for real-time crash information that it hopes to sell to insurers, auto makers and governments.

Dr. Martinez, a former emergency-room physician, said that most car crashes are studied only after they occur. "There's very little data, and most of that is from laboratories -- not the real world."

Write to William M. Bulkeley at bill.bulkeley@wsj.com