Your Car's Black Box Records Five Seconds. The Rule Taking That to Twenty Is Final, and Starts in 2028.
The short version. Since 2006 the federal rule for event data recorders has required five seconds of pre-crash data at 2 Hz, which is ten data points. A final rule published on 18 December 2024 raised that to twenty seconds at 10 Hz, which is two hundred. Manufacturers petitioned for reconsideration. On 18 May 2026 NHTSA published a final rule that keeps the twenty seconds and moves the deadline: a four-year phase-in beginning 1 September 2028.
The substance was never reopened. What changed is when you can expect to find twenty seconds of data in a car that has just been in a crash.
Why a repairer or a claimant should care about a sampling rate
Five seconds at 2 Hz gives an investigator ten readings of speed, braking and throttle before impact. Twenty seconds at 10 Hz gives two hundred, over a window four times as long.
That is the difference between a snapshot of the last moment and a record of the approach. In a disputed liability claim, or in any argument about whether a driver assistance system was engaged and what it did, the length of the window is often the whole question.
The correction NHTSA published on 27 May 2026 makes the window explicit in the regulation itself: in Table I to § 563.7(a), the second column's fifth and sixth lines are corrected to read "-20 to 0 sec".
The schedule, as finalised
The final rule is 91 FR 28432, published 18 May 2026 and effective 17 June 2026. It amends 49 CFR parts 563 and 585 under RIN 2127-AM78, in docket NHTSA-2025-0050.
The phase-in applies to a manufacturer's applicable vehicles produced in each period:
| Production period | Share that must comply |
|---|---|
| 1 September 2028 to 31 August 2029 | 25 percent |
| 1 September 2029 to 31 August 2030 | 50 percent |
| 1 September 2030 to 31 August 2031 | 75 percent |
| On and after 1 September 2031 | 100 percent |
Two categories sit outside that table:
Small-volume and limited-line manufacturers are required to comply beginning 1 September 2032.
Vehicles manufactured in two or more stages, and altered vehicles, are not required to comply until on or after 1 September 2033. That is the category most likely to matter to anyone working on a body-on-chassis upfit, an ambulance, a shuttle or a wheelchair conversion.
Voluntary early compliance is permitted, so a vehicle built before its bracket can still carry the longer recording. You cannot infer the capability from the model year alone.
What the agency said it was buying with the delay
NHTSA's own framing is that the schedule "aligns with manufacturer production cycles and technical feasibility," and it puts a number on the industry saving: between $35.54 million and $89.82 million undiscounted, in 2024 dollars, across 2027 to 2030.
That figure is the agency's estimate of cost avoided by manufacturers, not a safety calculation, and this page does not present it as one.
How to read a claim about "the black box" without getting it wrong
Not every vehicle has one. Part 563 has never required a vehicle to be fitted with an event data recorder. It sets what a recorder must capture if one is installed. The 2006 rule applied to EDR-equipped light vehicles manufactured on or after 1 September 2012.
The old numbers are still the live numbers. Until the phase-in bites, a car in your shop today is overwhelmingly a five-second, 2 Hz car. Anyone quoting twenty seconds as the current state of the fleet is describing 2031 at the earliest.
A final rule can still be petitioned. Petitions for reconsideration of the May 2026 rule were due by 2 July 2026. We have not checked whether any were filed, and this page does not claim the schedule is beyond further change.
Access is a separate question from capture. Nothing in part 563 tells you who may read the data, who owns it, or what a shop may do with it. That is state law and contract, and it is not covered here.
Sources, and how we read them
Read from the Federal Register's developer API on 18 August 2026. FederalRegister.gov serves a bot-check page to automated website requests and designates the API for programmatic access; we used the API and did not retry the website pages.
- 91 FR 28432, 18 May 2026, "Event Data Recorders", final rule, document 2026-09849. Effective 17 June 2026. The four-year phase-in, the small-volume and multi-stage dates, voluntary early compliance, the cost estimate, the description of the 2006 baseline and of the December 2024 requirements.
- 91 FR 31368, 27 May 2026, correction, document C1-2026-09849. The "-20 to 0 sec" correction to Table I to § 563.7(a).
- The proposed rule that preceded it, published 28 November 2025, document 2025-21506, docket NHTSA-2025-0050. We did not read its page citation and do not quote one.
- 71 FR 50998, 28 August 2006, cited in the 2026 rule as the origin of the five-second, 2 Hz requirement.
One number this page deliberately does not give: how many currently registered vehicles actually contain an EDR. NHTSA does not publish that, and every figure we found for it traced back to an estimate rather than a count.
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General consumer information: not legal, insurance, or financial advice. Requirements, coverage, and practices vary by state, policy, and manufacturer.
Where this fits
Each link says what it is for. We add one only when a reader on this page has a real reason to need that page next.
- The Five-Star Rating Does Not Cover the Systems You Recalibrate, and Now It Will Not Until MY2027 (the same agency, the same year, the other postponed programme)
- Windshield Recalibration: What Anyone Actually Has to Tell You (what is owed in writing when a camera comes out of alignment)