safety design Tag

Until 2002, installing a baby car seat was a somewhat complicated procedure. In 2002, LATCHES appeared making installations much easier. Until 2002 installing a baby car seat was a somewhat complicated procedure as you had to rely solely on the car’s seatbelt system to secure the seat in the vehicle. In 2002, though, the LATCHES (latches, anchors and tethers for children) system. This system not only standardized car-seat installation but also made installations easier, provided you followed the steps exactly. What happens if you don’t follow the installation steps asRead More

With the release of the first crash tests on the new aluminum-bodied Ford F-150 SuperCrew pickup, it seems as if the Dearborn-based automaker made the right decision. According to thecarconnection.com, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) the Ford F-150 SuperCrew has passed its initial crash tests with flying colors. The tests were held in February at the agency’s test facilities. The SuperCrew model features a full-sized cab with seating for five to six, depending on the front seat choices. With two buckets seats, the SuperCrew can seat five andRead More

Honda yesterday expanded the scope of its driver-side-only airbag recall while Takata adamantly refused to expand its recall program. Turning to Swedish airbag manufacturer for assistance, Honda yesterday expanded its driver-side-only airbag recall. Formerly, the recall had been limited to high-humidity areas, however, in response to requests from federal regulators, the automaker expanded its recall. Loaners To Be Offered At the same time, Honda acknowledged that the added burden of a nationwide recall is taxing its ability to provide repair parts. Rick Schostek, an executive vice president, told a subcommitteeRead More

Imagine an automotive safety system that works, but not quite well enough. That is the case for 100,000 Mazda6 tire pressure monitor systems. Who would have imagined a safety system that fails but doesn’t realize it? That is the case with 100,000 tire pressure monitoring systems used in 2014 to 2015 Mazda6’s. According to thecarconnection.com, the 100,000 vehicles involved were built from Oct. 25, 2012 to Oct. 10, 2014. The problem lies in the tire pressure monitoring programming. If one tire loses pressure suddenly, the tire pressure monitoring system willRead More

Honda has expanded its recall of vehicles equipped with Takata-made airbags as it faced a new round of questions. Honda, Japan’s third-largest automaker, has expanded the scope of its recall of vehicles equipped with suspect Takata airbags to include 2001-2006 products. No specific number of vehicles was recalled at the time by the manufacturer. According to Reuters, the automaker’s action, upgrading its “safety campaign” to a formal recall, comes in the wake of Honda’s second appearance before highway safety regulators who are seeking more information on Honda’s airbag program. RegulatorsRead More

Auto industry watchers wonder how the airbag recall will affect Takata, the manufacturer. Honda may also feel sting. As the airbag recall continues to gain traction, industry insiders are wondering what it will mean for the manufacturer of the system that is central to the whole issue, Takata. Is it also possible that the popular automaker, Honda, will also feel the sting, one way or another? According to a report on the Reuters news wire, Takata is unlikely to feel any major impact from manufacturers in the short to mediumRead More

There were two headlines competing for our attention over the weekend. JP Morgan confirmed that it had been hacked and data affecting about 76 million households had been compromised. It’s also suggested a further number of banks and financial institutions were infiltrated from the JP Morgan servers. This was a major “success” for the hacking community. The second headline was Tesla announcing it was soon to launch new versions of its electric vehicle that would make self-driving vehicles more real. As the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has recognised, hackersRead More

Google started the ball rolling and now manufacturers have been announcing their own plans for self-driving vehicles. The universal assumption behind all these initiatives seems to be that the introduction of this technology will be trouble-free and produce such immediate benefits; we will all wonder how we managed before. As an example, General Motors has just announced that in 2017, two of its Cadillacs will enable vehicle-to-vehicle communication to warn the drivers of potential crash situations and give the drivers the option to allow the car to drive it inRead More

The negatives now outweigh the positives When the automobile first appeared, it was a toy for the rich to play with. Everyone else relied on horses and the world continued to turn. Unfortunately, Henry Ford then decided to make the car a mass market product that everyone could afford. In a short space of time, horses were discarded and several thousand stables went into liquidation, throwing a significant number of people out of work. Automobiles have always had positives and negatives attached to them. With more efficient transport, economic activityRead More

When you look at the sales figures for the most popular makes and models sold, the most outstanding numbers come in for pickups. Perhaps in the good old days, this was just landowners and ranchers who needed to get around off-road. Now the ownership of a truck has become a status symbol. People like to project the image of the great outdoors even though all they do is a daily commute past a park. All this would be an entirely harmless way of making a statement but for one veryRead More