Ministry recommends black box for cars
One of several recommendations made to enhance vehicle safety
Dubai: Vehicles in the UAE might soon come fitted with black boxes, similar to aircraft, that will constantly monitor the road behaviour of a driver.
The Ministry of Economy, host of the first Vehicle Safety Conference, on Monday made several recommendations to enhance vehicle safety in the country, one of which was to install devices that will record vehicle performance and driver behaviour.
“Some Dubai taxis are already equipped with these black boxes-like devices that can monitor the driver’s performance as well as record the vehicle’s performance. The data can be used to determine causes of accidents and it can be used to improve road safety in the future. We recommend the authorities facilitate installation of these devices on all vehicles,” said Dr Hashem Al Nuaimi, director of Consumer Protection at the ministry.
He also made other recommendations such as making weight measurement of vehicles part of annual vehicle inspections, to activate vehicle recalls in a more organised and structured manner and to make some of 4,500 optional standards of vehicle safety mandatory.
He also urged all stakeholders of the automobile industry to follow the national agenda of reducing road mortality to three per 100,000 by 2021. The current rate is 6.6 per 100,000.
