How Buttigieg Might Start The #MeToo Movement In Automotive Safety Design

FORBES

Before questioning the need for such a revolt within functional safety design practices, it is worth examining NHTSA’s crash data: women are 73% more likely to suffer injury in a car crash, and 17% more likely to die than the average man. The critical naysayer will quickly point out The University of Michigan’s data that 41% of drivers on the road at any given time are female — which has increased nearly every year since 1963 when it was only 24% — however 71% of those aforementioned female injuries happened while in the driver’s seat. What makes the death disparity even more astounding: 75.4% of “risky drivers” are male, i.e. exhibiting behaviors such as Driving Under the Influence (DUI), speeding excessively, reckless driving, etc.

Certainly the next, obvious question is “Why the difference?”

Enter Pete Buttigieg: former mayor and now U.S. Transportation Secretary. After four years of an administration that targeted repealing or suspending 880 regulations, there will be a renewed opportunity to address the lag of appropriate testing. read more »

Ex-Audi CEO blames engineers’ ‘salami’ tactics for diesel woes

DETROIT NEWS

Former Audi Chief Executive Officer Rupert Stadler, on trial over charges related to Volkswagen AG’s diesel scandal, blamed engineers for his failure to uncover widespread cheating on emissions tests.

Stadler, testifying for the first time, told a Munich court that engineers gave the management board at the VW group’s luxury-car unit insufficient information to detect the fraud.

Stadler’s testimony stuck close to the standard corporate defense that any engine manipulation was the fault of a group of rogue engineers. read more »