Unlocking the Black Box: Downloading Hidden Vehicle Electronic Data

Episode Show Notes: 

Unlocking the Black Box: Downloading Hidden Vehicle Electronic Data 

• What is telematics?
  • Simply put, it’s the technology in your vehicle that connects your infotainment system, Bluetooth, cruise control, door locks, and more into a data system.
  • You don’t need to understand the word itself, just what it does — it makes all this vehicle tech accessible as digital evidence.
• Law enforcement and vehicle data:
  • Police can extract data from over 10,000 different car infotainment systems.
  • This data can reveal detailed information after a crash, including brake usage, door lock status, seatbelt engagement, and even whether you were texting or browsing the internet through your car’s Wi-Fi.
• What kind of data is stored in your vehicle?
  • Apps like Android Auto and Apple CarPlay connect to your car, storing contacts, history, and more.
  • The car records operations such as remote start, gear position, speed — essentially acting as a black box similar to those in airplanes.
• Usage beyond law enforcement:
  • Private investigations also use vehicle data, often through subpoenas or direct downloads.
  • Vehicle owners sometimes request data from cars driven by spouses, colleagues, or relatives to know where the car went or if someone else was riding inside.
• Passenger detection and other details:
  • The vehicle can detect if someone was sitting in the passenger seat by monitoring airbag sensors.
  • It can log door openings/closings, whether the engine was running when the door opened, if doors were left unlocked, and even what radio stations were playing.
• Cellular connectivity in vehicles:
  • Many vehicles have their own cellular devices (like OnStar) that ping cell towers independently of your phone.
  • This means your car tracks location data and communications separately and permanently.
• Why this matters:
  • Vehicle technology today can hold as much or more data than your smartphone.
  • Unlike your phone, you can’t carry your car’s data with you — it stays in the vehicle and can be downloaded by anyone with access.

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Telematics—what does it mean? Well, you don't need to know about the word; you just need to know about what it does. What it does is it takes all of the technology in your vehicle—the infotainment system, your Bluetooth connection to your phone, your automation of things like cruise control, door locks—and it's making it accessible as evidence. And this article from Forbes tells a story: law enforcement can take data from over 10,000 different cars' infotainment systems.

Look, there's been cases where there's a car crash, and they can go back and see—were you on your brakes? Were your doors locked? Were your seat belts on? Were you texting? What was the history of the navigation that you did? They can even tell if you were surfing using the Wi-Fi on your car. Anything you're doing through your infotainment system—and think about everything that's on there—you have apps for Android Auto, for Apple CarPlay. You have all these different things that connect to your car that make it convenient. But now, your car now has all the data from your phone, has all your contacts, has your history, takes pictures. It can go into your car, and all the car operations itself are there: Did you remote start it? What gear was it in? How fast were you going?

It's like a black box in your car—the same as what a plane has, right? So be aware that this can be used as evidence by law enforcement. But also, we're seeing it more in investigations where the private sector is subpoenaing or downloading this information. We have many requests from clients who have their vehicle—that they own—that was used by somebody else. Maybe a spouse, maybe a colleague, maybe a relative. And they want to get the information from that vehicle. Where did that car go? Was there somebody in the passenger seat?

Think about that. You can tell if somebody's in the passenger seat, because when somebody sits in there, it activates that airbag for being able to go off—over a certain number of pounds on the seat. How would you like to know if somebody was in the passenger seat when your spouse is driving your car?

These are the kinds of things that infotainment systems can spit out. It can also tell things like: was the door opened and closed? Was the car running when somebody got out? Was a door left unlocked? What radio station was on? Was it using XM Radio? What channel was on XM Radio? Were there pings to cell phone towers from the vehicle?

Because even though your cell phone pings the cell phone towers, most vehicles now have things like OnStar or other emergency connections, which is always pinging cell phones. It's got its own IMEI, its own identifier for the cellular device in that vehicle—beside your cell phone.

So be aware that vehicle connectivity and technology is now as advanced, if not more advanced, than some cell phones—and has all the same information that your phone might have. And you can't take it with you in your pocket. It's left in your car for anybody to download, if they have access.