Fitting a black box to 2008 Focus, Mondeo, Kuga or S-Max
Discussion
TRL (Transport Research Laboratory) is offering £100 cash to take part in a driver research study. It’s open to anyone who drives a 2008 Ford Focus, Mondeo, Kuga or S-Max.
To qualify, you—or someone you know—will need to answer ‘yes’ to all of the following:
• I own and drive a Ford Focus, Mondeo, Kuga or S-Max.
• My Ford has: Electronic Stability Programme (ESP); Electronic Brake Assist (EBA); Electronic Brake-force Distribution (EBD); Anti-lock Braking System (ABS). These should all be standard on 2008 models but if you have an earlier model fitted with all four safety systems, you may still qualify.
• I plan to keep my car for the next 6–12 months.
• My Ford is not a company car.
• My Ford has only one main driver.
• I would be happy to take part in any associated research tasks (most likely to be the odd questionnaire or telephone interview).
• I have a mobile telephone, email address and internet access.
• I live Great Britain.
What’s in it for you?
Apart from the £100 cash, it's a good opportunity for you to learn more about how you drive and take part in what we hope will be an interesting and innovative study. TRL (www.trl.co.uk) typically researches traffic and driver behaviour by using questionnaires or our vehicle simulators. This is changing and we’re now using In Vehicle Data Recorders (IVDRs) to collect information directly from vehicles that are driven on public roads—vehicles driven by people like you.
TRL fits each study vehicle with a small electronic box that plugs in to the European On-Board Diagnostics (EOBD) found on all vehicles. The IVDR boxes are made by Airmax (www.airmaxremote.com) and are used by thousands of vehicles for fleet management. They will provide TRL with very useful data for road safety research. We can fit the box at your home or work in about 1 hour (it’s usually hidden under the dashboard). Installation is unobtrusive, does not damage your car, is entirely reversible and the box can even be used for ‘track and trace’ should your car be stolen during the study.
To register your interest, please contact Simon at TRL. We hope to begin the study in the next couple of months and will be happy to answer any questions about Data Protection, IVDR technology or other aspects of the study. If this may interest someone you know, please tell them about it!
Email: stong@trl.co.uk
Tel: 01344 770378
About TRL: TRL carries out independent and impartial world class transport research. Established in 1933 as part of the UK Government, TRL was privatised in 1996 to become a fully independent private company. We have no shareholders and reinvest any profits in research like the study proposed here. TRL works at the cutting edge of transport—many people will have seen videos of our crash tests (e.g. for Euro NCAP).
To qualify, you—or someone you know—will need to answer ‘yes’ to all of the following:
• I own and drive a Ford Focus, Mondeo, Kuga or S-Max.
• My Ford has: Electronic Stability Programme (ESP); Electronic Brake Assist (EBA); Electronic Brake-force Distribution (EBD); Anti-lock Braking System (ABS). These should all be standard on 2008 models but if you have an earlier model fitted with all four safety systems, you may still qualify.
• I plan to keep my car for the next 6–12 months.
• My Ford is not a company car.
• My Ford has only one main driver.
• I would be happy to take part in any associated research tasks (most likely to be the odd questionnaire or telephone interview).
• I have a mobile telephone, email address and internet access.
• I live Great Britain.
What’s in it for you?
Apart from the £100 cash, it's a good opportunity for you to learn more about how you drive and take part in what we hope will be an interesting and innovative study. TRL (www.trl.co.uk) typically researches traffic and driver behaviour by using questionnaires or our vehicle simulators. This is changing and we’re now using In Vehicle Data Recorders (IVDRs) to collect information directly from vehicles that are driven on public roads—vehicles driven by people like you.
TRL fits each study vehicle with a small electronic box that plugs in to the European On-Board Diagnostics (EOBD) found on all vehicles. The IVDR boxes are made by Airmax (www.airmaxremote.com) and are used by thousands of vehicles for fleet management. They will provide TRL with very useful data for road safety research. We can fit the box at your home or work in about 1 hour (it’s usually hidden under the dashboard). Installation is unobtrusive, does not damage your car, is entirely reversible and the box can even be used for ‘track and trace’ should your car be stolen during the study.
To register your interest, please contact Simon at TRL. We hope to begin the study in the next couple of months and will be happy to answer any questions about Data Protection, IVDR technology or other aspects of the study. If this may interest someone you know, please tell them about it!
Email: stong@trl.co.uk
Tel: 01344 770378
About TRL: TRL carries out independent and impartial world class transport research. Established in 1933 as part of the UK Government, TRL was privatised in 1996 to become a fully independent private company. We have no shareholders and reinvest any profits in research like the study proposed here. TRL works at the cutting edge of transport—many people will have seen videos of our crash tests (e.g. for Euro NCAP).
I think that a bit more info on what research the data is to be used for would be worth adding, before we all assume its National Road Pricing trials and a handy automatic speeding fine system. Or is that what its for? (In which case did you not think to check out PH's general consensus on such schemes?).
Edited by cj_eds on Thursday 6th November 12:50
cj_eds said:
I think that a bit more info on what research the data is to be used for would be worth adding, before we all assume its National Road Pricing trials and a handy automatic speeding fine system. Or is that what its for? (In which case did you not think to check out PH's general consensus on such schemes?).
The main focus of the research will be to characterise the behaviour of different drivers, with a focus on safety and efficiency. A fleet of company car drivers is being recruited for comparison with the fleet of private drivers that we're hoping to recruit from forums such as this. Edited by cj_eds on Thursday 6th November 12:50
The project is part of TRL's self-funded reinvestment programme. As such, it is not influenced or supported by Government policy and does not seek to demonstrate road charging schemes or automated speeding fines in any way whatsoever. Data that we aim to collect will mostly be extracted from the EOBD and vehicle CAN-bus, including engine parameters (e.g. RPM, fuel consumption), activation of safety systems (e.g. ABS, EBD), speed, acceleration and location (via GPS).
One of the project objectives is to give drivers feedback on their journeys. Such feedback may or may not influence future driving. The project primarily has a behavioural perspective. In addition, TRL has considerable interest in what these data can tell us about vehicle and highway performance. Some of the many uses include improving and validating our driving simulators, improving our traffic modelling software and enhancing our knowledge of how vehicles perform in a range of 'normal' and 'extreme' driving conditions. The latter is particularly useful for our accident investigation team.
Your comments are very much appreciated and I hope this additional information is helpful. I would be pleased to provide more information, particularly to anyone who may have a serious interest in taking part.
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