Black boxes are used in airplanes for decades, why aren't they used in cars?
they are actually used in some cars and are predicted to become more and more common with time.
The main reasons for the time it takes to adopt it are mainly cost-effectiveness and privacy-legislation issues.
The airbag sensor, for example, stores data about the conditions that led to the deployment of the airbag. This data is stored for the purpose of "covering the ass" of the auto manufacturers after they were sued for activating airbags without reason. There's even a story about someone who was convicted in court based on the data that came from the airbag sensor.
Trucks have been using Tachographs for a long time now, although the main reason for using it is convicting truckers of speeding or driving too many hours and less as an accident reconstruction tool, which is the main application of the conventional "black-box".
There are other technologies/systems out there that collect data about the vehicle and the different car systems, but they are usually there for purposes other than reconstructing acccidents. Automotive systems such as fleet management, navigation, pay-as-you-go and so on are predicted to eventually be used as "black-boxes" for reconstructing accidents, but that may take some time and will ultimately be installed in cars during manufacturing.
tachographs have been in use for a while now, haven't they? At least in trucks.
Actually there are things like that in use. Search the web for "drive diagnostics", for example.
robblatt.com
this has actually been going on as early as 1996.
from http://www.seniormag.com/headlines/blackboxcars.htm
In the United States, there are approximately 190 million drivers. If you are driving a car manufactured by GM or Saturn, you could be carrying around an event data recorder (EDR) and not even know it. The EDR senses various conditions in and around the vehicle and that can then be obtained by various individuals for various purposes.
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