Apr
18

Avoid Getting Dead Due to a Runaway Vehicle

By | Industry

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Yesterday I provided a brief history of NHTSA’s work on Brake-Throttle Override (BTO) systems, specifically how they abandoned the effort in 2002. In researching BTO I found very little evidence of user education on the subject. While today’s debate will continue to exam how to prevent future models from accelerating on their own, who is educating users NOW?

Most discussions concerning vehicle safety instantly look for a technical solution, overlooking (discrediting?) the human solution – education. Most states [Read more...]

Apr
17

Brake-Throttle Override – Part II?

By | Industry

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In 2002 the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) propsed a rule that would have created mandatory Brake-Throttle Override (BTO) system for vehicles. NHTSA concluded, “…further development was needed on some of the proposed test procedures.” Ten years and one unintended acceleration pandemonium later, they’re at it again. But why exactly did they withdrawal their effort ten years ago? [Read more...]

Jan
11

Public-Private Roads Not Faster or Cheaper

By | The Hill

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Yesterday the Congressional Budget Office released a report titled “Do Public-Private Partnerships Build Roads More Quickly or at a Lower Cost?” Due to revenue shortfalls states and local governments are looking for alternative methods to meet their infrastructre needs. One common option has been to create  public-partner ventures when building highways, bridges and roads. The Senate Budget Committee asked CBO to determine if these public-private partnerships resulted in cheaper and faster projects.

CBO concluded – it is not cheaper or faster to partner with the private sector. [Read more...]

Jul
13

What Doesn’t the Government Screw Up?

By | The Hill

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While we are all familiar with things like government crash standards and air quality requirements, have you ever wondered just how involved the federal government is in the development of your car? You’d be shocked at the intricate things Uncle Sam spends his time and your tax dollars doing and in some cases undoing.

To demonstrate the power (and ridiculousness) of our government I want to share with you an announcement in Today’s Federal Register. The Federal Register is where executive agencies make public announcements.  This small but powerful example should give you an idea of how far reaching and cumbersome Uncle Sam’s regulatory arm can be. Like that tall guy in high school that was so tall he was too uncoordinated to actually play basketball.

The saga begins [Read more...]