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NHTSA Toughens Crash Test Rating Standards
mrspoonsi sends word that the U.S. government wants to toughen crash tests to measure pedestrian impact and evaluate driver assisting technology. USA Today reports: "U.S. regulators are overhauling the process of assigning safety ratings to new vehicles by proposing requiring more crash-avoidance technologies to achieve a perfect score and adopting new crash-test dummies to assess performance. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) on Tuesday proposed revising the current ratings system from a single overall score of 1 to 5 into a multifaceted scorecard that would include the score on crash-avoidance systems and a mark for pedestrian safety. Currently, NHTSA ranks cars simply based on crash-worthiness. Five stars is a perfect rating. The number of deaths on U.S. roadways fell to a record-low, based on incidents per miles driven, of 32,675 fatalities in 2014. But an 8% uptick in deaths in the first half of 2015 fueled concern that progress on vehicle safety may have stalled. Under the current system, which hasn't been updated in several years, more than 90% of vehicles earn a rating of at least 4 stars."
Compare and contrast the response of the government to a few terrorist deaths compared with this, and realise that we have a problem.
[Full disclosure - I'm a cyclist; I'm very careful around over large chunks of metal hurtling at excessive speed...]
More startled than any other part of the summary by how close the number of fatalities was to a 16 bit signed integer? Maybe God does not play dice with the universe, but he does use ancient hardware.
Safety devices like reinforced doors and crumple zones give more protection against other morons. So do better brakes and sticky tyres, although they aren't usually considered as safety devices.
Things like blind spot monitoring and automatic braking are crutches for bad drivers, as the OP said.
In the end, though, people are much more likely to buy a new car because of the infotainment system than any safety device.
Things like blind spot monitoring and automatic braking are crutches for bad drivers, as the OP said.
I dunno; I think I can do better than automatic braking on a good day, probably even a typical day, but when it comes to safety I should consider the kind of driver I am at my worst; when I'm angry, tired, and distracted for example.
When we think of ourselves as drivers we imagine ourselves at our best, which is why everyone thinks he's a better than average driver. Most people probably are better than average half of the time. But people aren't consistent like machines; we aren't always at our best. Even good drivers are bad drivers occasionally. If you're honest with yourself you'd probably admit to yourself that from time to time you make a stupid mistake that you normally wouldn't.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Is it just me or does that fatality rate seem really high?
Last year Australia had 1100 deaths or 5 per 100,000
UK had 1713 in 2013 or 2.85 per 100,000 population
France had 3250 in 2014 or 4.9 per 100,000 population
US at 32,675 is 11 per 100,000
And having a look at average mileage per year Australia is about the same as the US, but double the UK (so call them 5.7) and about 50% more than France (so again call them 7.5).
But speed limits are slower in the US than all of those examples. So where is it going wrong?
Perhaps we could up our game in driver's ed? While we're at it begin doing something about dumbass pedestrians?
The other day at late dusk I was driving through a neighborhood and had something move up ahead of me, I hit the brakes thinking it could be a deer. Nope, some schmuck in full desert cammo to include a backpack and hat had decided to stroll across the street in front of me. I was coming up on a T intersection where I had to turn and what was behind this moron was dead brown grass on a hill. He crossed about 25foot closer to me than the stop sign so NOT at the f'ing corner. Had I not noticed the movement this schmuck would've been a speed bump! I was within the speed limit but kripes this jerk gave me a heart attack.
Driver's education and testing these days needs to get better too. When I see someone lazing like they're in a lounger in front of their big screen, head propped up an elbow on the door peering into their side mirror trying to merge I cannot help but want to scream.Don't get me started on passengers with their feet on the dash asking to wear them as earrings in an accident. Vehicles so big they can barely look over a steering wheel or see what's behind them staring into a screen to reverse. Yapping on a cell phone call waving their hands doing 5 under the speed limit in the left lane weaving side to side. Staring at their lap texting moving at 70MPH in traffic, face lit by the glow of FaceBook (and yeah I've sometimes recognized the site they're on!). Technology isn't needed to solve these problems, people aware of what they're doing and some understanding of their responsibility would solve this. Heaven forbid we prevent one of these fools from their God Given Right!!!11! to get down the road to little boy's soccer match! I've watched some of these idiots try to parallel park and it's a comedy. Shame we can't take these folks out on a slick track to learn how to correct a skid, or parallel park in a tight space, maybe brake and avoid an obstacle. We could have an object run out in front of them forcing them to react. I recently had one of these distracted morons rear-end a car 4 behind me, the chain reaction was bad enough I was shoved into an SUV stopped to turn (3 of us stopped BTW) and I actually moved the damn thing I hit it so hard. The car he hit was sitting on his hood when I walked back, it's driver had to visit an ambulance. The guy who caused this all said he dropped something and when he tried to retrieve it he didn't see the string of cars stopped. Naturally his insurance was unable to cover anything other than the first car Do we still show kids in school videos of bloody bodies? Maybe we need to show adults this again at license renewal?
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Rear view cameras are specifically about kids who are *too small* for you to see when looking out the rear window. If there is a kid behind you they don't have to get out of the way, you have to yield. But you can't yield if you don't know that they are there. That's why the camera is important.
There's only so much that you can get out of better driver's education and stricter testing; here in Vienna the testing is becoming stricter and stricter all the time, to the point that they have covered every possible bad driving behaviour, and are moving into the terrain of pure bullshit.
Here it is considered an error, for example, to grab the steering wheel in anything position other than the 9:15 one; even the 10:10 position is considered an error, even though it was the mandatory position two years ago. Here you can fail the driving test if you change your driving lane while making a turn; I have a friend who failed her test because she was less than one meter way from the next car during a traffic jam.
I think the result from these overly strict regulations is that it simply gets more expensive to get a driver's license, without actually improving traffic safety. It can even be detrimental to safety, if the kids are learning this stuff instead of focusing on paying attention to pedestrians and other cars.
entropy happens
ABS has NEVER been about stopping distance. ABS is about keeping control of the vehicle while stopping, ie not getting into a skid or slide.
When I learned to drive (long before ABS was popular), a whole lot of the training was on how to stop in slick conditions. Step 1: do not stomp on the brakes. Step 2: PUMP the brakes quickly so the wheels don't lock up and send you into a skid. Step 3: When step 2 fails, get off the brakes and steer into the direction of the skid to try and recover from it.
Note that if step 1 and 2 are properly followed your stopping DISTANCE is increased.
For the first 20 years or so of driving I used those three steps, including step 3 way more often than I would like (never had an accident though). Since I have a car with ABS, never had to use those steps, because the ABS is taking care of steps 1 and 2, and since it does it far better than I did step 3 hasn't been required.
Yes, there are contrived situations where a person could do better than ABS, but on the whole ABS is much better.
Yes exactly, the guy claiming he can outperform his car's electronics is full of it and he has never tested in any scientific fashion at all. As I said previously, lot's of folks think they're better drivers than they are and he's a prime example.
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