Category: Blog

Please see the CAS Analysis and letter to NHTSA Administrator Mark Rosekind.

CAS Analysis Shows Tesla (Joshua Brown) & Jeep Shifter (Anton Yelchin) Deaths Lie at NHTSA’s Feet

July 15, 2016

The tragic deaths of Anton Yelchin and Joshua Brown due to faulty electronics must be placed squarely at NHTSA’s feet.  In its zeal to advance vehicle electronics, NHTSA has forgotten it is a regulatory agency to ensure vehicle safety, not a promotional agency to foster the development of vehicle technology.

Yelchin’s death is due to NHTSA creating a huge loophole in 1999 in FMVSS 102 governing transmission shift mechanisms.  Brown’s death is due to NHTSA’s failure to issue a FMVSS for self-driving controls and allowing Tesla to beta test an autopilot system using consumer as test drivers on public roads, something that has never before been done in NHTSA’s history.

Congress intended that compliance with the federal rules would both regulate and stimulate new technologies.  Today’s NHTSA has abandoned the regulatory side for the stimulation side at the expense of safety.  By issuing interpretative rules as it did on electronic shifters for BMW and not issuing Safety Standards as it did on self-driving vehicles, NHTSA created safety loopholes that inevitably led to the deaths of Joshua Brown and Anton Yelchin.

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Click here to view the CAS Letter to NHTSA Administrator Rosekind

America needs people in government, in industry, and the media to do their jobs protecting the American people.

In this election year, we are on the road to 4 million vehicle deaths in the U.S.A. in the next decade.  How many more deaths will it take to get the President to set a Vision Zero goal?  See https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/assets/MonthlyReportforJanuary2016-Corrected.pdf

Citizen Marianne Karth and her family have gathered 20,000 signatures for President Obama to issue an executive order to set a Vision Zero goal.  See

http://annaleahmary.com/tag/vision-zero/

What hidden strings are holding him back?

Put safety first, please.

Lou

They ask:

…Time after time and safety hazard after safety hazard, inaccurate NHTSA death and injury databases are failing the American public and leading to inadequate safety measures to prevent needless deaths and injuries on the roads and driveways of America.

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More Americans must ask themselves: What strings hold back Federal auto safety actions by the President?

Consumer Watchdog is calling on President Obama, DOT, NHTSA and Tesla to do the right thing for safety.  Keep their hands on the wheels and eyes on our future for safety from pain – not on the revolving door and private gain.

“Consumer Watchdog Exposes Robot Car Weaknesses At Symposium; Calls On Tesla To Update Software & Carmakers To Accept Legal Responsibility, Asks Feds To Go Slow

The white truck highlighted the shortcomings of Tesla’s Autopilot, which could not distinguish between a white truck making a left turn in front of the car and a bright sky in a fatal crash in Florida that killed former Navy SEAL Joshua Brown.  Consumer Watchdog’s truck had large signs reading “Tesla Don’t Hit Me!” and “Obama Speed Kills.”

View and download a photo of the truck here: http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/images/teslatruck071816sm.jpg

Consumer Watchdog proposed reprogramming Tesla’s Autopilot software to require the driver’s hands on the wheel in a letter sent today with former NHTSA Administrator Joan Claybrook to Tesla Chairman Elon Musk and NHTSA Administrator Mark Rosekind.  The letter also called for automakers to accept legal responsibility and for NHTSA to abandon its voluntary guidelines and adopt enforceable standards. Read the letter here: http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/resources/ltrmuskrosekind7-18-16_final.pdf”

“We are deeply concerned about the failure of Tesla and NHTSA to accept responsibility for the death of Joshua Brown, a death that is not the result of human error, but of the failure of technology and acceptance of a voluntary industry agreement by the government in lieu of minimum mandatory safety performance standards,” Court and Claybrook wrote.    

“The tragic fatal Tesla crash in Florida demonstrates the need for Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards rather than voluntary guidelines. Not only did the Tesla S’s video camera fail to distinguish a white truck from white sky, but its automatic emergency braking system failed to apply the brake with a tractor-trailer stretched across the road right in front of it.”  The letter noted that NHTSA had denied a rulemaking proceeding for safety standards for automatic emergency braking that may have created enforceable standards for radar range that could have prevented the death.”

See release at http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/consumer-watchdog-exposes-robot-car-weaknesses-at-symposium-calls-on-tesla-to-update-software–carmakers-to-accept-legal-responsibility-asks-feds-to-go-slow-300300071.html

Will Obama, Foxx, Rosekind and Musk keep their hands on the wheels and their eyes on our future safety?  Or will the American people suffer more pain – because their eyes are on the revolving door and private gain?

President Obama, Secretary Foxx, Administrator Rosekind and Tesla’s Elon Musk can’t talk with Joshua Brown the Tesla underride crash victim.  But they can talk with Marianne Karth for first hand knowledge of underride tragedy.  See http://annaleahmary.com/  And they can talk with Claybrook and Court on safety governance.  Will they or won’t they?  If not, why not?  That is the question the American people should be asking.

Lou