Business Fully self-driving cars may be on the fast lane to U.S. roads under a pilot program the Trump administration said on Tuesday it was considering, which would allow real-world road testing for a limited number of the vehicles. 10 Oct 2018 04:25AM Bookmark WASHINGTON: Fully self-driving cars may be on the fast lane to U.S. roads under a pilot program the Trump administration said on Tuesday it was considering, which would allow real-world road testing for a limited number of the vehicles.Self-driving cars used in the program would potentially need to have technology disabling the vehicle if a sensor fails or barring vehicles from traveling above safe speeds, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said in a document made public Tuesday.NHTSA said it was considering whether it would have to be notified of any accident within 24 hours and was seeking public input on what other data should be disclosed including near misses.The U.S. House of … [Read more...] about Self-driving cars may hit US roads in pilot program: NHTSA
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Takata whistleblowers to share US$1.7 million award, lawyers say
REUTERS: Three former Takata Corp employees will share an award of US$1.7 million after they alerted authorities to the risks of deadly air bag inflators that led to the largest recall in automotive history.The whistleblowers provided extensive assistance and information to the U.S. government in its criminal case against Takata, according to law firm Constantine Cannon LLP, which represented two of them.Takata agreed in bankruptcy court on Monday to pay the three men out of a reserve fund created during its bankruptcy proceeding. Although Congress passed a whistleblower act in 2015 the government has not completed work on a mechanism to pay awards.The whistleblowers, Mark Lillie and another man who remained anonymous, both former Takata employees, had asked a federal judge in Detroit and the bankruptcy court to set aside significantly more as the U.S. Transportation Department decides whether to grant them a whistleblower award, but they were not successful.A third whistleblower who … [Read more...] about Takata whistleblowers to share US$1.7 million award, lawyers say
You may be using your child’s car seat incorrectly
NEW YORK: When parents rate a child’s car seat, they’re usually thinking about how easy it is to carry, buckle or clean – and whether it has a well-placed cup holder. But experts look at whether it’s being used correctly to keep a child safe, and surprisingly often, it’s not.A 2016 report by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) found that up to 59 per cent of car seats were improperly used. And Miriam Manary, senior engineering research associate at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute, said misuse estimates were even higher in other studies. Some of the errors are minor, she said, “but somewhere around 35 per cent of it is gross misuse where they’re not going to get any protection from that system – things like not securing the child restraint into the vehicle or not harnessing the child in the child restraint system.”Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death in children, and … [Read more...] about You may be using your child’s car seat incorrectly
U.S. probes four deaths in Hyundai-Kia cars after airbag failures
By Tom Krisher The Associated Press Sat., March 17, 2018 DETROIT—The U.S. government’s road safety agency wants to know why airbags in some Hyundai and Kia cars failed to inflate in crashes and four people are dead. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating problems that affect an estimated 425,000 cars made by the Korean automakers. The agency also is looking into whether the same problem could happen in vehicles made by other companies. In documents posted on its website Saturday, the safety agency says the probe covers 2011 Hyundai Sonata midsize cars and 2012 and 2013 Kia Forte compacts. The agency says it has reports of six front-end crashes with significant damage to the cars. Four people died and six were injured. One of the crashes, involving a Forte, happened in Canada. The problem has been traced to electrical circuit shorts in airbag control computers made by Michigan-based parts supplier ZF-TRW. NHTSA now wants to know … [Read more...] about U.S. probes four deaths in Hyundai-Kia cars after airbag failures
GM just revealed a fully autonomous electric car that doesn’t have a steering wheel
General Motors revealed its fourth-generation self-driving vehicle. It has no traditional manual controls. The automaker expects to roll it out in 2019. No driver. No pedals. No steering wheel. Just seats and screens and doors that can close themselves. That’s what riders will see when they get into one of General Motors’ Cruise self-driving electric vehicles, scheduled to hit the road in 2019. On Thursday, the automaker also stressed that the fully autonomous vehicle would emphasize safety – and went into great detail on the hows and whys, including redundant systems intended to replace a human driver. On a conference call with reporters, GM President Dan Ammann said that the vehicle is the fourth generation of the vehicle to emerge from the carmaker’s Cruise division. GM acquired what was then Cruise Automation, a Silicon Valley startup, in 2016. “We’re super excited to share this point in … [Read more...] about GM just revealed a fully autonomous electric car that doesn’t have a steering wheel