Car Safety Wars

Car Safety Wars PDF Author: Michael R. Lemov
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1611477468
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
Car Safety Wars is a gripping history of the hundred-year struggle to improve the safety of American automobiles and save lives on the highways. Described as the “equivalent of war” by the Supreme Court, the battle involved the automobile industry, unsung and long-forgotten safety heroes, at least six US Presidents, a reluctant Congress, new auto technologies, and, most of all, the mindset of the American public: would they demand and be willing to pay for safer cars? The “Car Safety Wars” were at first won by consumers and safety advocates. The major victory was the enactment in 1966 of a ground breaking federal safety law. The safety act was pushed through Congress over the bitter objections of car manufacturers by a major scandal involving General Motors, its private detectives, Ralph Nader, and a gutty cigar-chomping old politician. The act is a success story for government safety regulation. It has cut highway death and injury rates by over seventy percent in the years since its enactment, saving more than two million lives and billions of taxpayer dollars. But the car safety wars have never ended. GM has recently been charged with covering up deadly defects resulting in multiple ignition switch shut offs. Toyota has been fined for not reporting fatal unintended acceleration in many models. Honda and other companies have—for years—sold cars incorporating defective air bags. These current events, suggesting a failure of safety regulation, may serve to warn us that safety laws and agencies created with good intentions can be corrupted and strangled over time. This book suggests ways to avoid this result, but shows that safer cars and highways are a hard road to travel. We are only part of the way home.

Car Safety Wars

Car Safety Wars PDF Author: Michael R. Lemov
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1611477468
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 289

Get Book Here

Book Description
Car Safety Wars is a gripping history of the hundred-year struggle to improve the safety of American automobiles and save lives on the highways. Described as the “equivalent of war” by the Supreme Court, the battle involved the automobile industry, unsung and long-forgotten safety heroes, at least six US Presidents, a reluctant Congress, new auto technologies, and, most of all, the mindset of the American public: would they demand and be willing to pay for safer cars? The “Car Safety Wars” were at first won by consumers and safety advocates. The major victory was the enactment in 1966 of a ground breaking federal safety law. The safety act was pushed through Congress over the bitter objections of car manufacturers by a major scandal involving General Motors, its private detectives, Ralph Nader, and a gutty cigar-chomping old politician. The act is a success story for government safety regulation. It has cut highway death and injury rates by over seventy percent in the years since its enactment, saving more than two million lives and billions of taxpayer dollars. But the car safety wars have never ended. GM has recently been charged with covering up deadly defects resulting in multiple ignition switch shut offs. Toyota has been fined for not reporting fatal unintended acceleration in many models. Honda and other companies have—for years—sold cars incorporating defective air bags. These current events, suggesting a failure of safety regulation, may serve to warn us that safety laws and agencies created with good intentions can be corrupted and strangled over time. This book suggests ways to avoid this result, but shows that safer cars and highways are a hard road to travel. We are only part of the way home.

Automotive Vehicle Safety

Automotive Vehicle Safety PDF Author: George A. Peters
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 0203166302
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 231

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Book Description
Automotive Vehicle Safety is a unique academic text, practical design guide and valuable reference book. It provides information that is essential for specialists to make better-informed decisions. The book identifies and discusses key generic safety principles and their applications and includes decision-making criteria, examples and remedies. It

Unsafe at Any Speed

Unsafe at Any Speed PDF Author: Ralph Nader
Publisher: New York : Grossman
ISBN:
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 396

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Book Description
Account of how and why cars kill, and why the automobile manufacturers have failed to make cars safe.

Integrated Automotive Safety Handbook

Integrated Automotive Safety Handbook PDF Author: Mark Gonter
Publisher: SAE International
ISBN: 0768064376
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 216

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Book Description
Even though a number of developed countries enjoy a high level of vehicle safety, more than 1.2 million fatalities still occur each year on roadways worldwide. There remains a need to continue improving vehicle and road safety. New technologies in sensors and electronic control units, and the growing knowledge of car-to-car and car-to-infrastructure technologies have led to a fusion of the previously separated areas of accident avoidance (popularly known as active safety) and mitigation of injuries (popularly known as passive safety) into the newer concept of integrated vehicle safety. This new approach represents a further step toward lowering accident rates. This book, written by two of the foremost automotive engineering safety experts, takes a unique and comprehensive approach to describing all areas of vehicle safety: accident avoidance, pre-crash, mitigation of injuries, and post-crash technologies, providing a solutions-based perspective of integrated vehicle safety. Also covered are accident investigation and worldwide legislation as they apply to integrated vehicle safety. The man-machine interface, biomechanics and development and simulation techniques are also key concepts that are thoroughly described. Special attention is given to driver assistance systems and to compatibility in car-to-car crashes and pedestrian protection. Chapters cover: accident research, functions of integrated safety, biomechanics and protection criteria, injury mitigation, adaptive occupant protection, compatibility, calculation and simulation, and the future. The book is useful for those interested in any aspect of automotive safety. Engineers and scientists from the automotive industry can learn new details as well as the broad perspective of vehicle safety today. The book also provides key information to traffic safety professionals, law enforcement, insurance practitioners, and journalists. Those who help shape traffic and vehicle legislation can gain a wider understanding of the topic to help them craft better laws. The book also serves as a valuable learning resource for academicians and students.

Automotive Safety Handbook

Automotive Safety Handbook PDF Author: Ulrich Seiffert
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
Examines the state-of-the-art in passenger car vehicle safety. Looks at both active and passive safety systems. Describes basic relationships and new developments related to accident avoidance (including man/machine interface) and mitigation of injuries. In addition to detail on accident avoidance, occupant protection and biomechanics, the book features thorough discussion of the interrelationships among the occupant, the vehicle and the restraint system (in frontal, lateral, rear impacts and rollover). Other subjects covered include safety legislation, vehicle body and interior design, accident simulation tests, pedestrian protection and compatibility.

The Struggle for Auto Safety

The Struggle for Auto Safety PDF Author: Jerry L. Mashaw
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780674423466
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 300

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Book Description
Combining superb investigative reporting with incisive analysis, Jerry Mashaw and David Harfst provide a compelling account of the attempt to regulate auto safety in America. Their penetrating look inside the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) spans two decades and reveals the complexities of regulating risk in a free society. Hoping to stem the tide of rising automobile deaths and injuries, Congress passed the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act in 1966. From that point on, automakers would build cars under the watchful eyes of the federal regulators at NHTSA. Curiously, however, the agency abandoned its safety mission of setting, monitoring, and enforcing performance standards in favor of the largely symbolic act of recalling defective autos. Mashaw and Harfst argue that the regulatory shift from rules to recalls was neither a response to a new vision of the public interest nor a result of pressure by the auto industry or other interest groups. Instead, the culprit was the legal environment surrounding NHTSA and other regulatory agencies such as the EPA, OSHA, and the Consumer Product Safety Commission. The authors show how NHTSA's decisions as well as its organization, processes, and personnel were reoriented in order to comply with the demands of a legal culture that proved surprisingly resistant to regulatory pressures. This broad-gauged view of NHTSA has much to say about political idealism and personal ambition, scientific commitment and professional competition, long-range vision and political opportunism. A fascinating illustration of America's ambivalence over whether government is a source of--or solution to--social ills, The Struggle for Auto Safety offers important lessons about the design and management of effective health and safety regulatory agencies today.

Automotive System Safety

Automotive System Safety PDF Author: Joseph D. Miller
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1119579708
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 261

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Book Description
Contains practical insights into automotive system safety with a focus on corporate safety organization and safety management Functional Safety has become important and mandated in the automotive industry by inclusion of ISO 26262 in OEM requirements to suppliers. This unique and practical guide is geared toward helping small and large automotive companies, and the managers and engineers in those companies, improve automotive system safety. Based on the author’s experience within the field, it is a useful tool for marketing, sales, and business development professionals to understand and converse knowledgeably with customers and prospects. Automotive System Safety: Critical Considerations for Engineering and Effective Management teaches readers how to incorporate automotive system safety efficiently into an organization. Chapters cover: Safety Expectations for Consumers, OEMs, and Tier 1 Suppliers; System Safety vs. Functional Safety; Safety Audits and Assessments; Safety Culture; and Lifecycle Safety. Sections on Determining Risk; Risk Reduction; and Safety of the Intended Function are also presented. In addition, the book discusses causes of safety recalls; how to use metrics as differentiators to win business; criteria for a successful safety organization; and more. Discusses Safety of the Intended Function (SOTIF), with a chapter about an emerging standard (SOTIF, ISO PAS 21448), which is for handling the development of autonomous vehicles Helps safety managers, engineers, directors, and marketing professionals improve their knowledge of the process of FS standards Aimed at helping automotive companies—big and small—and their employees improve system safety Covers auditing and the use of metrics Automotive System Safety: Critical Considerations for Engineering and Effective Management is an excellent book for anyone who oversees the safety and development of automobiles. It will also benefit those who sell and market vehicles to prospective customers.

Characterizing the Safety of Automated Vehicles

Characterizing the Safety of Automated Vehicles PDF Author: Juan Pimentel
Publisher: SAE International
ISBN: 076800201X
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 190

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Book Description
Safety has been ranked as the number one concern for the acceptance and adoption of automated vehicles since safety has driven some of the most complex requirements in the development of self-driving vehicles. Recent fatal accidents involving self-driving vehicles have uncovered issues in the way some automated vehicle companies approach the design, testing, verification, and validation of their products. Traditionally, automotive safety follows functional safety concepts as detailed in the standard ISO 26262. However, automated driving safety goes beyond this standard and includes other safety concepts such as safety of the intended functionality (SOTIF) and multi-agent safety. Characterizing the Safety of Automated Vehicles addresses the concept of safety for self-driving vehicles through the inclusion of 10 recent and highly relevent SAE technical papers. Topics that these papers feature include functional safety, SOTIF, and multi-agent safety. As the first title in a series on automated vehicle safety, each will contain introductory content by the Editor with 10 SAE technical papers specifically chosen to illuminate the specific safety topic of that book.

Commercial Motor Vehicle Driver Fatigue, Long-Term Health, and Highway Safety

Commercial Motor Vehicle Driver Fatigue, Long-Term Health, and Highway Safety PDF Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309392527
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
There are approximately 4,000 fatalities in crashes involving trucks and buses in the United States each year. Though estimates are wide-ranging, possibly 10 to 20 percent of these crashes might have involved fatigued drivers. The stresses associated with their particular jobs (irregular schedules, etc.) and the lifestyle that many truck and bus drivers lead, puts them at substantial risk for insufficient sleep and for developing short- and long-term health problems. Commercial Motor Vehicle Driver Fatigue, Long-Term Health and Highway Safety assesses the state of knowledge about the relationship of such factors as hours of driving, hours on duty, and periods of rest to the fatigue experienced by truck and bus drivers while driving and the implications for the safe operation of their vehicles. This report evaluates the relationship of these factors to drivers' health over the longer term, and identifies improvements in data and research methods that can lead to better understanding in both areas.

Small Car Safety in the 1980's

Small Car Safety in the 1980's PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 156

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Book Description