NFC And The Little, Black Box

NFC Forum Helps IEEE to Protect Vehicle Data Recorder Information

Last year, the NFC Forum received a request from the Chair of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 1616-2021 Task Force. The task force wanted NFC Forum expertise on adding NFC protocols to an existing solution.  The resulting interesting NFC use case was published recently by the IEEE 1616-2021 Task Force showing how NFC can be used to access and protect private data stored in  motor vehicle event data recorders (MVEDRs) aka the “black box.”

MVEDRs are essential, as they collect, record, store, and export data relating to a motor vehicle’s usage history, and the updates to the IEEE standard allow for improved privacy, protection against tampering, fraud, and overall safety enhancement on these devices, including enhanced crash information. The addition of NFC technology makes many new features possible making the solution more effective and secure.

Safeguarding and Saving Lives

This newly announced update by the IEEE 1616-2021 task force is important as it will help save lives by improving the quality and quantity of the crash information we have access to while also fostering privacy. In other words, the IEEE 1616 standard for MVEDRs incorporates NFC technology protocols that safeguard access to information found on vehicles’ black boxes.

According to the National Safety Council (NSC), 42,060 people died in a car crash in the U.S. in 2020. If researchers better understood the factors that surround car crashes, they could also find out how to avoid them better in the future, using that information to tailor more sophisticated vehicle crash detection systems.

Representatives from the NFC Forum Technical Committee and Automotive Special Interest Group provided a technical presentation to IEEE 1616 Task Force. From this presentation and their own work, IEEE 1616 Task Force developed a new and enhanced “black box” solution for the automotive industry.

The IEEE 1616 standard is one of many standards that aim to increase accessibility of transportation and mobility solutions, to allow people from all levels of the transportation industry to help increase consumer safety. To find out what else the NFC Forum is doing in mobility area click here.