In order to better comprehend the events leading up to a crash, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) requiring auto black boxes to gather 20 seconds of pre-crash data at a higher frequency data rate. Whereas presently it gathers only 5 seconds of slow data. 

As mandated by Congress under a 2015 statute, the agency has pondered enacting the policy for more than three years. By 2020, NHTSA was expected to have completed the new data gathering regulations. 

The NHTSA abandoned a 2012 proposal to mandate EDRs in all new cars in 2019 under former President Donald Trump because it claimed automakers had voluntarily installed the devices in virtually all vehicles.

NHTSA mandated in 2006 that automakers who installed EDRs gather specific information, such as vehicle speed, collision forces at the time of contact, if an air bag deployed, and whether the brakes were applied, whether seat belts were secured and used just before a collision.

According to NHTSA estimates, EDRs are standard on 99.5% of new cars. 

The new laws might go into effect after September 2023.