When a self-driving car is involved in an accident, its data tells the story -- which can be essential to crash investigators to determine who or what was at fault, as well as to automakers, so they can make their self-driving systems smarter and safer.
In 2004, the IEEE Standards Association introduced IEEE 1616, setting the ground rules for the types and amounts of data collected by automobile event-data recorders, or EDRs (a car's answer to the black boxes in aircraft).
In the nearly 20 years since this standard was established, however, vehicles have become more electronics-intensive, with the addition of high-tech systems including advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) like Tesla's famous (and sometimes infamous) Autopilot.
