The Toyota recall for unintended acceleration issue prompted the congress to consider a new automotive safety bill. According to it, all the new cars should come equipped with Event Data Recorders or also known as automotive black boxes that should be able to record events for a longer duration than the usual five seconds. However it is being feared that if the bill is passed, the the cost of the units could triple, bringing total cost to anywhere between $4,000 and $5,000 per unit.

The new regulation will mandate these black boxes to be fitted into all vehicles.The new addition of technology to the box to have as high as 75 seconds of recording time may cause the box to swell in size making it difficult to adjust into the vehicles. That is because reports indicate that from the dimensions of a bulky phone, it will become as big as a shoe box.  Also if the devices are to be made more resistant -fire and water proof and have their storage capacity increased, large costs will be associated with the changes, leaving consumers with no choice except paying them.

The automotive safety legislation wants all U.S. vehicles to integrate data recorders, or small computers that collect data about vehicle speed, deceleration and other factors that measure the reason behind the car crash. The regulation would take effect beginning in the 2015 model year with NHTSA’s final decision about the durability requirements.