Post by TonyV on May 6, 2010 2:38:27 GMT -5
Last Updated: May 06. 2010 1:02AM .
Carmakers to back black box recorders
11-company alliance to also push other safety mandates, including brake override systems
David Shepardson / Detroit News Washington Bureau
Washington -- Detroit's Big Three automakers and Toyota Motor Corp. will endorse mandatory event data recorders and brake override systems on all new vehicles.
Dave McCurdy, president and CEO of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, the trade group representing General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co., Chrysler Group LLC, Toyota and seven other companies, will tell a House panel today that automakers back some new mandates.
"The Alliance supports a vehicle brake override standard that will reassure consumers that they can count on their automobiles," McCurdy will say, according to his prepared testimony.
"Brake override technology is a comprehensive solution to unintended acceleration, whether it's caused by faulty electronics or a pedal getting caught in a floor mat; therefore, a pedal placement rulemaking would not provide additional safety benefits."
Toyota, Mazda Motor Co., GM and some other automakers have said they will make the brake override technology standard on all of their vehicles by 2013.
The Alliance also supports requiring event data recorders in new vehicles. But its members, McCurdy is to say, are "concerned about provisions that suggest they should be like black boxes in airplanes. The typical airplane black box costs $22,000, which is close to the average price of a new car."
Bills proposed by House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W. Va., would require auto black boxes to collect the 60 seconds of data before a crash, and the 15 seconds after a crash -- far more than current devices capture.
The group also supports "the intent" of a standard, keyless ignition system to ensure a means of shutting off an engine during an emergency, but said "brake override is a preferable solution to unintended acceleration."
The automakers also support establishment of a Center for Vehicle Electronics and Emerging Technologies within NHTSA. "Even in this partisan environment, this is something we can all agree on," McCurdy will say.
McCurdy's testimony is silent on a number of controversial safety-related measures that have been suggested.
Both the House and Senate bills, for example, would give the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration sweeping authority to order a recall -- as well as a halt to the sale and production of vehicles that the agency believes poses an "imminent danger."
The House bill would pay for a doubling of NHTSA's enforcement budget through a new-vehicle fee that would rise to at least $9 per vehicle in three years.
The bills also hike fines and uncaps the maximum amount that automakers can be fined for violating federal recall law.
Also slated to testify before the Energy and Commerce subcommittee today are NHTSA chief David Strickland and Mike Stanton, head of the Association of International Automobile Manufacturers.