Items tagged with NHTSA
Autonomous autos are coming to the masses, eventually, but right now only a handful of states and cities allow the testing of autonomous cars on public roads. To accelerate the rollout of driverless cars, more testing needs to be performed and there are rules and regulations standing in the way of manufacturers. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is moving ahead with plans to rewrite rules and remove roadblocks to the autonomous auto future. As it stands now, regulations require certain equipment on any car that drives on the highway. These rules prevent autonomous autos from being rolled out that lack things like steering wheels, pedals, and mirrors. The NHTSA indicated...
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It's clearer than ever that our future is going to include a lot of automation, and that even includes our passenger cars, trucks, and mass transit. Companies like Google, Tesla, and NVIDIA have been working hard to develop technologies that will allow people to drive without even having to pay attention to the road. Of course, with technologies that can put everyone's lives at risk, the government hasn't been hasty in allowing the autonomous transition to happen. Autonomous technology today is without question, impressive, but to persuade the governments to approve autonomous vehicles from littering the road, a lot more has to be done. Today, we learn of a proposal of mandatory vehicle-to-vehicle...
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Finally. That's all that can be really said about Apple admitting to the world that it's working on autonomous driving technologies. The company has been infamously, and perhaps infuriatingly mum on the fact that it's been working on such tech, even though there have been a countless number of hints to it. Well, we now know that Apple is indeed working on self-driving technologies. Apple could be targeting the likes of Tesla sooner than later... In a letter to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), Apple says that it's feeding off of its expertise in machine-learning to help create automated systems, particularly in the transportation market: Apple uses machine learning to...
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Leaving the home is about to become more dangerous than it already is. That's because the holiday shopping season is about to be kick into full swing, that means a combination of inattentive pedestrians looking down at their smartphones and distracted drivers wielding handsets behind the wheel. It makes for a potentially dangerous combination, and since vehicles have the potential to do the most damage, the U.S. Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has proposed that phone makers include a Driver Mode with a simplified interface. The latest proposal is part of a collection of voluntary guidelines designed to reduce driver distraction caused by mobile...
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One of the benefits of an electric vehicle and many hybrids is that they reduce noise pollution compared to their gas guzzling brethren. On the surface, that sounds like a good thing, until you get plowed into by one because you didn't hear it coming. To prevent that from happening, the U.S. Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has added a sound requirement for all newly built hybrid and EVs. "We all depend on our senses to alert us to possible danger," said U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. "With more, quieter hybrid and electrical cars on the road, the ability for all pedestrians to hear as well as see the cars becomes an important...
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We have some rather tragic news to report in the world of autonomous driving. Via a blog posting on its site, Tesla Motors reported that the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) has opened a preliminary investigation into the company after a fatal crash involving a Model S EV that was operating semi-autonomously via Autopilot. According to reports from the Levy County Journal and from Tesla itself, the vehicle was traveling along a divided highway when a tractor trailer that was initially traveling in the opposite direction made a left turn perpendicularly in front of it. According to Tesla, “neither Autopilot nor the driver noticed the white side of the tractor trailer...
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By this point, everyone and their dog knows that driving while pecking away on a smartphone dramatically increases the chance of accidents, yet many remain defiant, and sometimes even proud about their foolish deeds. Apparently, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has had enough of that, and has decided to begin calling out those who brag about it on Twitter. AT&T's #ItCanWait Don't Text and Drive Simulator from 2014 More often than not, it's a poor idea for a company (or agency) to use social media to call people they don't even know out. But when it comes to something like this, which does lead to a greater number of deaths, it's hard to feel sorry for anyone who doesn't...
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Alanis Morissette famously sang about there being rain on your wedding day and ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife. She also belted out many other examples of irony, though if she's in need of a new verse, she may want to consider the FBI's public service announcement about the need to beef up security in today's Internet connected cars while simultaneously taking Apple to court in an attempt to weaken iPhone security. Okay, maybe that's not being entirely fair, but it's hard not to see the irony here. On one hand, the FBI wants the courts to force Apple to assist with bypassing the security measures that are in place on an iPhone 5c that belonged to one of the San Bernardino shooters,...
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It seems as though the U.S. Government is continually having to save us from ourselves with regards to the vehicles we drive. Over the years, we’ve seen mandates with regards to antilock braking systems (ABS), airbags, stability control systems and even backup cameras. Today, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is hoping to save more lives with a new directive on automatic emergency braking (AEB) systems for automobiles. A number of luxury vehicles have included such technology for nearly a decade, and it has even filtered down to mainstream vehicles in higher trims or via option packages. But the NHTSA has announced that it has reached an agreement with 20 auto manufacturers,...
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Expanding a recall dating back to 2008, Japanese automobile airbag manufacturer Takata Corp is doubling the number of recalls for its potentially lethal product in the U.S. from 16.6 million to approximately 34 million vehicles (about one in seven of the over 250 million vehicles on American roads), which makes it the largest such recall in American history. The U.S. Department of Transportation and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in conjunction with Takata state that the recall affects passenger- and driver-side airbag inflators that are installed in vehicles made by 11 automobile manufacturers. “We are committed to continuing to work...
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In an effort to curb drunken driving, the state of Maryland has released an app that helps people decide whether they are sober enough to drive. ENDUI (pronounced “End DUI”) is free for Android and iOS platforms and was launched this week at the annual Maryland Remembers memorial, which was attended by Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) president Jan Withers. The ENDUI app has several features, but it’s the Blood Alcohol Guide that has been getting all the attention. Set your gender and weight and you’re ready to start entering the drinks you’ve had recently. As you enter them, ENDUI estimates your blood alcohol content (BAC) and uses a color-coded timeline to give you a sense of when you’ll...
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Airbag maker Takata Corp fessed up that there may be more defective air bags in the wild than previously thought. A defect in the driver-side air bag inflator has already been linked to at least four deaths and over a dozen injuries, along nearly 31,000 recalled vehicles by GM and Nissan, and now Takata is saying that it first began making airbags with the defect as far back as 2008. The flaw consists of a bad part that could cause the inflator to rupture. If that happens, the airbag explodes with more force than is usual, resulting in metal shards being thrown about inside the vehicle. The defect was uncovered when a Georgia woman sued GM in October 2013 after claiming that a defective driver-side...
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