The Department for Transport (DfT) is currently exploring the feasibility of forcing car manufacturers to install safety black boxes to all vehicles, in order to help cut the death toll on Britain’s roads.

At present the DfT is consulting with international bodies in order to formalise a set of standards that can be applied to all vehicles for recording key data.

At present the main concerns are keeping a record of vehicle speed, and steering angle, before the car crashes. In additional, it is expected that the boxes would be able to determine when a car has crashed and automatically alert emergency vehicles if detected, using on board satellite navigation systems to help direct police and ambulance services to the scene of an accident.

Similar devices are already fitted as standard to most vehicles supplied to the American motor vehicle market. Known as Motor Vehicle Event Data Recorders (MVEDR), they were originally developed to help improve the response of air bags, but have since been advanced to record a range of data useful for accident investigators.

Although the government has acknowledged that civil liberties groups may raise concerns, the final say may lay with manufacturers. With each black box projected to add as much as £500 to the price of a new vehicle, consumers may be more primarily concerned with the extra cost involved.

As the extension of the London congestion charge zone is extended tomorrow, Honda expect this to push sales of greener hybrid cars in the capital.

Sales already show the percentage of hybrid cars in London rose over 2005-2006 from 1% to 2%.

Honda are predicting that an additional 6,500 hybrid fuel models will be sold in London alone over the next 2 years.

Although many people think of hybrid cars as essentially exotic, Honda has now sold over 185,000 worldwide.

Of its UK sales, a third are purchased from people living in London and the South East of England - and Honda believe that congestion charges on traditional pertrol and diesel cars are the reason for this.

It’s not just consumers who are buying them - the Metropolitan police has already ordered 177 hybrid fuel Honda Civics, and national corporations are ushering them in.

In the meantime, Honda are building a sports car to extend its market reach beyond the traditional saloon style.