In a time when motor vehicles are being designed to be far more advanced than ever before, vehicles are still very dangerous and many include a countless number of unsafe feature. According to the Washington Post, “it’s the worst year for auto recalls in U.S. history, with more than one in five cars and trucks at risk of sometimes critical, deadly defects.” It is difficult to understand why safety is still such a problem in a time that advancements are being made toward making self-driven cars a reality for everyone and cars, such as those made by Tesla, are being made more eco-friendly than many ever thought was possible.
This extreme amount of recalls includes federal regulators suggestion of 7.8 million recalls between Hondas, Toyotas, BMWs and other vehicles for malfunctioning airbags that blast out metal shards. This defect, believed to be a design failure of Japanese auto parts manufacturer Takata, has been linked to at least two deaths and dozens of injuries. These faulty cars and trucks have joined the millions of other vehicles recalled this year. As of October, automakers had issued recalls for an estimated all-time-high of 56 million vehicles in the U.S. The Detroit Free Press notes that, “To put that in perspective, automakers have now recalled more than three times the number of new cars and trucks Americans will buy this year.”
Luckily things are looking up though as automakers are making strides to fix these issues and be much more cautious about potential dangers. This is primarily because of landmark cases such as General Motors and Toyota. This has been causing many automakers to take every potential problem very seriously and not overlook problems that would have simply been ignored in the past. Link
It is suggested that it is obviously a good idea to be cautious your own car is safe and ensure that a car you are going to potentially buy is safe. The NHTSA offers a Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) search feature online, which helps you helps you to do so. By entering your VIN you can find out if your cars has been recalled at any point over the past 15 years and whether or not the recall has been repaired on your car. Carfax.com also provides the same function at no charge. Link
Sources:
http://time.com/money/3531902/auto-recalls-guide/
http://nettleslawblog.com/blog-old/2014/9/23/vehicle-recalls-on-the-rise.html
Very good topic and well written. I like the data and the graph. These elevate the blog to another level.
Cars are increasingly complex, making failures more likely. It is also a competitive market that puts pressure on the manufacturers. Even Japanese manufacturers are having problems. Most concerning are the cases where the problem was known and not resolved. Stuff happens, it is how you respond that is important.
Given the huge and rising number of miles driven, the fatalities involved are not only low but minuscule compared to those caused by alcohol, drugs, and fatigue. Design and manufacturing is held to an ever higher standard. Zero tolerance. We do not even do that for BAC. But beyond the human costs, the costs of liability and recalls are massive and we all end up paying for that.
All that said, we should use zero tolerance as a design goal.
And onward to the end of the car https://sites.google.com/a/psu.edu/smartphone-technology/the-future-of-the-car