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General notes
30
Legal requirements regarding the disclosure of
data
If legally required to do so, manufacturers are, in
individual cases, legally obliged to provide govern-
mental entities, upon request and to the extent
required, data stored by the manufacturer. For
example, this may be the case during the investi-
gation of a criminal offense.
Governmental entities are themselves, in individ-
ual cases and within the applicable legal frame-
work, authorized to read out data from the vehi-
cle. In the case of an accident, information that
can help with an investigation can, therefore, be
taken from the air bag control unit, for example.
Operational data in the vehicle
This is data regarding the operation of the vehicle,
which have been processed by control units.
This includes the following data, for example:
vehicle status information such as the speed,
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longitudinal acceleration, lateral acceleration,
number of wheel revolutions or the fastened
seat belts display
ambient conditions, such as temperature, rain
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sensor or distance sensor
Generally, the use of these data is temporary;
they will not be stored beyond the period of oper-
ation and will only be processed within the vehicle
itself. Control units often contain data memories
for vehicle keys, for example. Their use permits
the temporary or permanent documentation of
technical information about the vehicle's operat-
ing state, component loads, maintenance require-
ments and technical events or malfunctions.
Depending on the vehicle equipment, the follow-
ing data are stored:
operating status of system components, such
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as fill levels, tire pressure or battery status
malfunctions or faults in important system
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components, such as lights or brakes
system reactions in special driving situations,
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such as air bag deployment or the intervention
of stability control systems
information on events leading to vehicle dam-
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age
In certain cases, it may be required to store data
that would have otherwise been used only tempo-
rarily. This may be the case if the vehicle has
detected a malfunction, for example.
If you use services, such as repair services and
maintenance work, stored operational data as
well as the vehicle identification number can be
read out and used. They can be read out by
service network employees, such as workshops
and manufacturers or third parties, such as break-
down services. The same is true in the case of
warranty claims and quality assurance measures.
In general, the readout is performed via the legally
prescribed port for the diagnostics connection in
the vehicle. The operational data that are read out
document technical states of the vehicle or of
individual components and assist in the diagnosis
of malfunctions, compliance with warranty obliga-
tions and quality improvement. To that end, these
data, in particular information about component
loads, technical events, malfunctions and other
faults may be transmitted along with the vehicle
identification number to the manufacturer. Fur-
thermore, the manufacturer is subject to product
liability. For this reason the manufacturer also
uses operational data from the vehicle, for exam-
ple, for recalls. These data can also be used to
examine the customer's warranty and guarantee
claims.
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