Auto Safety Bill Includes Standard for Stopping

[Omaha Steve]

Source: NY Times

By MICHELINE MAYNARD

DETROIT — Senators introduced on Tuesday their version of broad automobile safety legislation that would set new standards for stopping distance, push-button ignition systems, data recorders and electronic controls.

The legislation follows the recalls of more than nine million Toyota vehicles worldwide since the fall, including two major recalls for problems with sticking accelerator pedals.

It also comes a week after House lawmakers unveiled their own auto safety measure. That draft bill will be the subject of a hearing Thursday by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

The bills mean Congress will take its first serious look at auto safety in a decade, when lawmakers passed reforms after accidents involving Firestone tires on the Ford Explorer.


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/05/business/05auto.html

[Po_d Mainiac]

1. I hate this shit

I was (now retired) one hellova a mechanic...

If it breaks I can fix it...have a house full of old appliances to prove it.

Make vehicles to move people...PERIOD!

Fuck the video and electronic windows.

This crap has gotten to point that it is not repairable without a team of technicians:
..........one gets real dirty
..........one is a computer geek
..........one is a billing expert
..........one is a master at creative writing
..........The smart one swings a mean sledge hammer

KI (F) SS our cars

KEEP IT FUCKING SIMPLE STUPID

ps........lost 2 members of extended family to drowning when the widows lacked battery power

[madrchsod]

2. i know how ya feel....

i wish i could afford a saab V-4 or a 93 2 cycle. great cars to work on...everything was designed by logical swedish engineers..

[unkachuck]

3. I totally agree, Po_d Mainiac....

....today's vehicles are techno-traps, unserviceable by old alley-mechanics like me....

....at one time cars were meant to be serviced by their owners or the corner gas station....at one time when you purchased a product, you owned it instead of having to share co-ownership with the manufacturer....they've successfully used complicated electronic management to remove me, the owner, from the process....

....they could have created a simple and complete self-diagnosing vehicle and used technology to aid me....they could also go back to building and selling cars on performance and durability instead of using appealing and meaningless nonsense to sell junk carbon-copy vehicles....

....it's all part of the new planned obsolescence one-shot throw-it-away-buy-a-new-one engineering of today....and that is totally UN-GREEN....is it not GREEN for everyone to able to easily repair existing vehicles?....it's not GREEN when a water-pump goes bad, you end up throwing away the car....

[Heywood J]

4. You mean you don't want to have to replace the car after

six years, just when you're done paying for it?

I don't mind increasing computerization on cars, but I do mind when the basic components of the car seem designed to fail at a predetermined time. Given the harsh environment that most cars live in and create, electronics and wiring should be designed to take more abuse than they're designed to now. It would also be nice to have some sort of protection underneath the car so that parts aren't constantly bombarded with rocks, stones, salt, and other debris. One member of my family had to pay $1200 to replace an A/C condensor after a stone popped up, another had to replace a gas tank. That's to say nothing of the rust anywhere that winters involve a degree of snow.