Tag Archives: U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

U.S. expands air bag defect probe to 12.3 million vehicles

FILE PHOTO: Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) headquarters are seen in Turin, Italy, July 21, 2018. REUTERS/Massimo Pinca

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said on Tuesday it is expanding a probe into potentially defective airbags to 12.3 million vehicles and upgrading it to an engineering analysis, a step required before it can seek to compel recalls.

The agency, known as NHTSA, said the airbags were installed in some vehicles from model years 2010 through 2019 sold by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV, Honda Motor Co, Hyundai Motor Co, Kia Motors Corp, Mitsubishi and Toyota Motor Corp.

They were equipped with an airbag control unit initially produced by TRW Automotive Holdings Corp, which is now owned by ZF Friedrichshafen. The agency said they could fail during a crash.

NHTSA first opened a probe in 2018 of about 400,000 vehicles and said Tuesday it has reports of two crashes and two injuries related to the defect along with one death in a Toyota vehicle.

ZF spokesman John Wilkerson said the company “is committed to motor vehicle safety and is working cooperatively with NHTSA and our customers in the investigation.”

Toyota said it is “cooperating with NHTSA’s engineering analysis. Toyota is also continuing its investigation into this issue and will take any appropriate action.”

At issue is whether the airbag control units may suffer electrical overstress due to harmful signals resulting from a crash, causing them to stop working during such an event. In opening its probe, NHTSA said: “the probability of this occurring appears to be low.”

NHTSA noted on Tuesday that there have recently been two substantial frontal crashes that may be tied to the issue, including the fatal Toyota crash. The agency is looking at whether an “unreasonable risk exists that requires further field action.”

Hyundai, Kia and Fiat Chrysler have previously issued recalls for more than 2.5 million vehicles with the airbag control units in question that might not deploy in crashes.

When it recalled nearly 2 million vehicles for airbag nondeployments with the issue in 2016, Fiat Chrysler said it had reports of three deaths and five injuries that might be related to the defect.

In a statement on Tuesday, Fiat Chrysler said that “when we became aware of this issue in 2016, we responded accordingly. However, we will cooperate fully with NHTSA’s investigation.”

Hyundai and Kia recalled more than 650,000 vehicles for airbag nondeployment concerns in 2018.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Paul Simao)

U.S. proposes requiring vehicles to ‘talk’ to each other to avoid crashes

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Transportation Department on Tuesday proposed requiring all new cars and trucks to be able to “talk” to one another using short-range wireless technology to potentially avoid tens of thousands of crashes annually.

Regulators, which first announced plans to pursue requiring the technology in early 2014, are proposing to give automakers at least four years to comply from the time it is finalized and would require automakers to ensure all vehicles “speak the same language through a standard technology.”

The administration of President-elect Donald Trump will decide whether to finalize the proposal, which does not apply to larger vehicles like buses and tractor trailers.

The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates that talking vehicles could eliminate or reduce the severity of up to 80 percent of crashes where alcohol is not a factor, especially crashes at intersections or while changing lanes.

Last year, there were 6.3 million U.S. vehicle crashes. In October, NHTSA said U.S. traffic deaths jumped 10.4 percent in the first six months of 2016. The jump follows a spike in 2015, when road deaths rose 7.2 percent to 35,092, the highest full-year increase since 1966.

Talking cars and trucks would use dedicated short range communications to transmit data up to 300 meters, such as location, direction and speed, to nearby vehicles. That data would be updated and broadcast up to 10 times per second to nearby vehicles, which can identify risks and provide warnings to drivers to avoid imminent crashes.

“From a safety perspective, this is a no brainer,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx.

NHTSA Administrator Mark Rosekind said vehicles would protect privacy by only exchanging safety information and would ensure hackers can’t intercept signals.

The rule would not require vehicles currently on U.S. roads to be retrofitted with the technology. Foxx said owners couldn’t turn off the technology but could turn off warnings.

The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, a trade group representing General Motors Co, Toyota Motor Corp, Volkswagen AG  and other major automakers, noted the system is already being tested. The group said it would study the proposal. Automakers are pushing to ensure that a portion of the spectrum reserved for connected vehicles is not used by other companies for other wireless device use. The U.S. Federal Communication Commission has begun testing potential sharing options.

Separately, the Federal Highway Administration plans to issue guidance for vehicle-to-infrastructure communications, which will help planners allow vehicles to “talk” to roadway infrastructure such as traffic lights.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by David Gregorio)