Crystal Conde

Research Paper
English 1101
First Draft

Vehicle Safety
The average American spends roughly 600 hours in their car in a year. Over the average lifespan
that equals out to be roughly 5 years of their life spent in a car. (Data from Arbitron 2009
National In-car case study) That is roughly 7% of our lives spent in a car. Having to spend that
much time in a vehicle consumers want their cars to be safe.
Cars have been around since Henry Ford first made the revolutionary change introducing the
Model T in 1908. The Model T was a basic 4 cylinder engine powered vehicle with 22
horsepower. This type of car in this day and age seems almost unreasonable. The cars know not
only come with engines that are equipped with up to 400 horsepower. With a vehicle of such
high magnitude and force safety should be of top priorities to these car companies producing
such high performance vehicles, and it is.
US car companies must abide by regulations set forth by the US Federal government and the
Department of Transportation. The US Federal regulations include everything from seat belts,
airbags, child lock on the back doors, as well as the proper front and rear lights. These vehicular
regulations vary across seas and vary drastically throughout countries. For comparative analysis
I would like to look at the United States and Great Britain. The UK has set many safety
precautions that the US does not. The benefits of these are easily seen. The mortality rate due
to vehicular accidents for the US in 2011 was 34,080 that does not account for pedestrian
death. The UKs fatality rate 1,754 deaths coming from the Department for Transport 2012
official figures. The reason England has such low rates is that newer model vehicles come
standard with electrically assisted sensor brakes. This means that the car can detect when an
object is near and if the driver does not break within a few meters the car will start to slow
down on its own in order to prevent an accident. Under the European Certificate of
Conformity the cars that undergo inspection but have this feature or the option to install this
feature. It has not official been set into place but the majesty is actively discussing this and will
be set forth by 2015. Those cars that do not these guidelines will be fined in the years to come.
(Electrically Assisted Pedal Cycles.) For vehicles in Great Britain there is a limit for voltage
regulation in England. It is 73/22/EEC commonly known as the low voltage directive. The
implementation of low voltage is critical in short circuit problems and self-wiring harm. The US
does not apply the low voltage directive making the 2 countries very different. (Electrically
Assisted Pedals).
That is only one aspect in which the two countries vary but there are many more. The US can be
seen with a heavy use of back up cameras, something that the British have not opted for quite
yet. Rear back up related incidents caused more than 200 injures each year. Ford, a US car
company, has taken that into account. All Ford models SUVs, sedans, coupes and trucks starting
from 2011 some standard equipped with back up cameras. These small cameras are placed in
the back above the license plate, though in the past year they have changed the location and
made it very discreet placing it within the actual logo. Fords true price market value has not
increased thought the MSRP is going up. That is to be expected since the cars are being more
luxurious rather than conventional. Ford in a press conference stated, that they wanted to
promote safety above all and comfort second. If you are safe then in turn you will feel much
more comfortable in the car. Toyota has been doing the same. Because Toyota is part of the
Japanese district motors their prices are seen to be cheaper compared to domestic companies.
Toyota focusing on making their cars lightweight in order to make them more fuel efficient.
Toyota has to have a higher factor of safety because the cars are so lightweight. They take
precautions when it comes to circuitry and wiring. Toyota has had several recalls in the past
including the recent runaway Yaris where the gas pedal would get jammed. Toyota is looking
to improve safety with cars that communicate. Integrated systems on a most basic level
consist of wireless devices that let cars "talk" to each other and to roadside devices in order to
take safety precautions or give the driver advice. (Car tech) Toyota is a participant on CAMP
(Crash Avoidance Metrics Project), a project organized by the Vehicle Safety Communications
Consortium 3 (VSC3) [PDF], an automaker alliance that is comprised of Nissan, Honda, Toyota,
Hyundai-Kia, Ford, General Motors, Mercedes-Benz, and Volkswagen. Toyota is making an
effort to give the driver as much flexibility as possible. The driver will first get a set of
increasingly urgent visual and audio warnings. If they ignore them, auto braking may be applied
to prevent an accident, but even then the driver can retake control. Describes Mr. Lovell, "If
auto braking were to start, if the users applies the brake or throttle all [automated] braking is
canceled."
Looking in federal regulations The National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration (NHTSA)
and the Research and Innovative Technology Association (RITA), the two U.S. government
groups overseeing the technology, will make a critical decision in 2013 that will affect whether
these safety features will make it into cars in the short term. The groups will rule whether to
acknowledge if the technologies have advanced sufficiently to make a difference the crash
safety ratings. Without this acknowledgment, most manufacturers will not put the systems in
the vehicles as the majority of customers will not know about or be able to appreciate the extra
investment in each vehicle and, more significantly, in roadside infrastructure.
Technology has shaped the world we live in and is becoming more prevalent in cars worldwide.
The increase in technology, based on investigation and research, does more good than harm.







Work Cited
"Advanced Technology and Alternative Fuel Vehicles.. U.S. Department of Energy, n.d. Web. 27
Mar 2014. <http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy01osti/27957.pdf

"ESQ - Vehicles." ESQ - Vehicles. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Mar. 2014.

Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, n.d. Web. 27 Mar. 2014.

Quick Reference Guide to the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards and Regulations.
Published by the NHTSA. Web. Accessed 24 Mar 14.

"Tell Us What You Think of GOV.UK." Vehicle Safety Standards Information Sheets. N.p., n.d.
Web. 27 Mar. 2014.