Month: February 2016

Protecting Auto Executives Not People

February, 2016

This government-industry plan has already been criticized but continues.  So do crash deaths and injuries at a rate of nearly 100 deaths per day, 400 serious injuries per day and losses valued by DOT at $2 Billion per day.  See https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/blog/blog-obamavisitdetroit/ andhttps://www.transportation.gov/sites/dot.gov/files/docs/VSL2015_0.pdf

NHTSA Will Not Count Pedestrian Who Died 2 Months After Accident

February, 2016

Lou

NHTSA and Auto Industry Favor Voluntary Safety Slow Down On Automatic Braking

February, 2016

The AP reports in an excellent article by Joan Lowy:

“WASHINGTON — Federal regulators and the auto industry are taking a more lenient approach than safety advocates like when it comes to phasing in automatic braking systems for passenger cars, according to records of their private negotiations.

The technology automatically applies brakes to prevent or mitigate collisions, rather than waiting for the driver to act. It’s the most important safety technology available today that’s not already required in cars.

Such systems should be standard in all new cars, says the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. But instead of mandating it, the government is trying to work out a voluntary agreement with automakers in hopes of getting it in cars more quickly.

But safety advocates say voluntary agreements aren’t enforceable and are likely to contain weaker standards and longer timelines than if the government had issued rules.

“Consumers are going to come up the losers in this process,” said Clarence Ditlow, executive director of the Center for Auto Safety.

Meeting minutes obtained by The Associated Press of four of the meetings that NHTSA has held with automakers since October show the government is considering significant concessions.

Records of a meeting on Nov. 12, show that automatic braking systems would be allowed that slow vehicles by as little as 5 mph before a collision. Manufacturers would be allowed to exempt 5 percent of their vehicles from the standard. Some automakers had said it would take longer to ready manual transmission vehicles for the technology. The discussion included an additional exemption for models that manufacturers intend to phase out or redesign.

The minutes from the fourth session, on Dec. 9, indicate that some automakers say they won’t be ready to include the technology in 95 percent of their vehicles until model year that begins in September 2025. NHTSA and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety objected, saying such a long timeline “was too late for this effort to be seen as a serious effort.” Automakers are now being polled to see if they can equip 95 percent of their vehicles by the model year beginning in September 2022.”  See

NHTSA & Google & Auto Companies Working On Rules For Driverless Cars

February, 2016

Reuters reports:”Exclusive: In boost to self-driving cars, U.S. tells Google computers can qualify as drivers

“U.S. vehicle safety regulators have said the artificial intelligence system piloting a self-driving Google car could be considered the driver under federal law, a major step toward ultimately winning approval for autonomous vehicles on the roads.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration told Google, a unit of Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O), of its decision in a previously unreported Feb. 4 letter to the company posted on the agency’s website this week.

Google’s self-driving car unit on Nov. 12 submitted a proposed design for a self-driving car that has “no need for a human driver,” the letter to Google from National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Chief Counsel Paul Hemmersbaugh said.

“NHTSA will interpret ‘driver’ in the context of Google’s described motor vehicle design as referring to the (self-driving system), and not to any of the vehicle occupants,” NHTSA’s letter said.

“We agree with Google its (self-driving car) will not have a ‘driver’ in the traditional sense that vehicles have had drivers during the last more than one hundred years.”

Major automakers and technology companies such as Google are racing to develop and sell vehicles that can drive themselves at least part of the time.

All participants in the autonomous driving race complain that state and federal safety rules are impeding testing and eventual deployment of such vehicles. California has proposed draft rules requiring steering wheels and a licensed driver in all self-driving cars.”

See http://www.reuters.com/article/us-alphabet-autos-selfdriving-exclusive-idUSKCN0VJ00H

Vehicle drivers are still needed to keep the eyes of the vehicle open.  See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDpdorEOeUc&feature=em-subs_digest

Citizens are needed to keep their eyes on these private government/industry policy makers.  Watch the DOT Revolving Door.  

See https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/blog-nhtsacorpservants.php

Lou

NHTSA Fails Audit – Again

February, 2016

The NY Times reports: “Five years after an internal audit revealed serious shortcomings at the nation’s top auto safety regulator, the agency has failed to follow through on some overhauls, according to a new audit by the Transportation Department’s inspector general.”  See

NSC Estimates 2015 Had Largest Percent Increase in Vehicle Fatalities in 50 Years

February, 2016

Important additional NSC Data by States and methodology are at http://www.nsc.org/NewsDocuments/2016/mv-fatality-report-1215.pdf

Thanks for Ralph Nader’s Work & for Crash Victims’ Work

February, 2016

Cally Houck’s decade of work to prevent future tragedies by making visible the loss of her two daughters has changed the law of the land in the U.S. so that rental companies must not rent out cars with unfixed defects,  See http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-cally-houck-rental-car-law-20151221-story.html  and http://www.amazon.com/Death-Rental-Car-Houck-Changed/dp/0692559132/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1455883020&sr=1-1&keywords=Cally+Houck