Automakers will be required to inform new-car buyers if an event data recorder has been installed in their vehicles under a new rule issued by the U.S. Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The new federal rule takes effect with 2011 model-year cars and could have insurance claim implications.

Event data recorders (EDR) are electronic devices that capture crash data in the seconds before, during, and after a crash. They do not capture any data unless there is a collision that is severe enough to cause the airbag to deploy. While automakers currently have the option to install the devices, approximately 64 percent of 2005's passenger vehicles came equipped with them. NHTSA's new rule does not require automakers to install EDRs if they already are not doing so.

NHTSA noted that having access to uniform crash information from EDRs, regardless of the vehicle's manufacturer, will help investigators recreate crash scenes to determine the causes. If insurance companies are granted access to this information, claims could more easily be proved or disproved based on the objective data supplied by the device.