The Expert Podcast

Vehicles—modern vehicles—are now collecting all kinds of data about you as you're driving and as you're using the vehicle. It's called vehicle telematics, and telematics records everything from whether the doors are open, the lights are on, if you’re pressing on the brakes, the speed, whether the signal switches are on, and even what you’re listening to on the radio. It can even gather information from your smart device when you connect it via Bluetooth. This could either be good news or bad news, depending on how you look at it.

So, these data points can be used in investigations. This article talks about how, when the Las Vegas truck Tesla had the incident a couple of months ago, the police used telematics data to find out what happened. But this can also be used in private litigation and civil cases. We've done many cases where we have extracted records and data from vehicles—sometimes surreptitiously. If you’re a vehicle owner and a spouse, child, or someone else has used that vehicle, you can find out how they used it, where they went, and how fast they were going.

Even something as simple as whether someone was sitting in the passenger seat can be determined. If you suspect your partner is cheating on you, vehicle data can reveal if someone was in the passenger seat, whether the door was opened, and which door opened first. For example, if you see that someone was sitting in the passenger seat, then the driver’s door opened, then closed, and then the passenger door opened a minute later, that could indicate someone walked around to open the door for the passenger—potentially indicating infidelity.

How do you know someone was in the passenger seat? Well, airbags are set to be active if there is weight on the seat, so that’s how you can tell. Vehicles collect more information than you can imagine—window switches, light switches, heating and air conditioning usage, whether the seat heater or steering wheel heater was turned on. Using this information can provide significant intelligence for civil cases, criminal cases, lawsuits, asset recovery, and even GPS location tracking.

If you have any type of case or conflict where data from a vehicle might be helpful, look into vehicle telematics. Our website will give you some information on it, and you can consult with one of our licensed investigators to find out what might be available and how it could benefit your case. It may provide intelligence that helps you make important decisions.

If you like this video, be sure to click on a few others on our channel to see if there’s more information that might be helpful to you—whether about this topic or other related subjects that could assist you in resolving your issue.