The Vehicle as a Digital Witness: Understanding Telemetry in Modern Investigations

Kevin R. Horan, Co-Founder, Precision Cellular Analysis

Investigators have learned to expect digital evidence from phones — location history, messaging, app data, call logs. That awareness is now routine.But the investigative landscape has shifted again.

The modern vehicle has become a parallel — and sometimes superior — source of digital evidence.

Today’s cars contain integrated telematics systems capable of recording and transmitting operational and location data with a level of precision that frequently surpasses what can be inferred from cellular records alone. In many cases, the vehicle is now the most objective witness available.

What Makes Modern Vehicles Digital Evidence Platforms?

Nearly all late-model cars include:

• A telecommunications module with LTE/5G connectivity

• A GPS receiver

• Secure storage for operational and behavioral data

• Automated, routine communication with manufacturer servers

This system is always active — regardless of whether a driver pairs a phone or subscribes to emergency services.

The data generated is not incidental. It is designed for:

• Safety monitoring

• Vehicle diagnostics

• Navigation assistance

• Fleet optimization

• User experience personalization

In other words: the technology exists because it helps the vehicle function, not because investigators want it.

That makes it reliable, time-synchronized, and often remarkably complete.

Examples of Telematics and Operational Data

The dataset varies by manufacturer and model, but common elements include:

Information Type	Examples Recorded
Location History	Coordinates, route points, parking locations, time stamps
Driver Inputs	Acceleration, braking, steering angle, cruise control status
Vehicle State	Ignition on/off, gear position, engine load, speed
Security & Access	Key fob IDs, remote unlock events, proximity entry logs
Incident Behavior	Sudden deceleration, collision severity, airbag deployment
Paired Device Data	Device IDs, call logs, navigation inputs (depending on system)

This is not simply “was the vehicle in this area.”It is how fast, how forcefully, how deliberately, and under what circumstances.

This is behavioral evidence.

Why This Data Is Strategically Significant

Vehicle telemetry can:

• Establish movement where phone location is vague or imprecise

• Distinguish between driver and passenger in certain scenarios

• Reconstruct patterns of travel before, during, and after an incident

• Corroborate or challenge narrative statements

• Verify or disprove claimed timelines and routes

• Fill gaps where the phone was turned off or left behind

A phone can be silenced, powered down, or left at home.A vehicle’s embedded modem generally cannot.

Practical Example

A subject states they left a location at 9:30 p.m. and drove directly home.

Telematics may show:

• Ignition at 9:43 p.m.

• Vehicle drove east for 11 minutes

• Stopped for 6 minutes at a different address

• Returned home at 10:11 p.m.

• Driver profile associated with a specific key fob

This transforms the question from “Did this happen?” to:“Explain why the vehicle went there.”

This Is Not “Future” Evidence — It Is Present Evidence

Litigators, investigators, adjusters, and experts who understand vehicle telemetry now have an advantage:

They can replace inference with measurement.

This changes:

• Cross-examination strategy

• Reconstruction analysis

• Credibility assessments

• Causation and negligence arguments

• Charging and defense theory development

The legal community is only beginning to absorb the implications.

Conclusion

The vehicle has evolved into a constant, structured recorder of movement and operation.It is not supplemental evidence.It is often primary evidence — and it is already reshaping case outcomes.

Professionals who recognize and leverage this dataset will be operating with clarity others lack.

Those who do not will increasingly be asked:“Why didn’t you look at the vehicle data?”

Author Bio

Kevin R. Horan is a retired FBI Supervisory Special Agent and former Assistant Prosecutor. He is co-founder of Precision Cellular Analysis, where he provides expert testimony and training on the use of cell-phone records and digital evidence in litigation.

If your case involves the movement, operation, or presence of a vehicle, we assist attorneys, investigators, and agencies in identifying, obtaining, and interpreting telematics and connected-car datasets. The analysis does not replace existing digital evidence — it strengthens or challenges it with high-fidelity behavioral information.