> The US doesn’t pre-approve vehicle designs. Automakers self-certify that their vehicles comply with all applicable Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards, and NHTSA checks after the fact.
huh, did not expect this. I wonder how many vehicles currently on road would fail those checks if the NHTSA started to pay close attention?
Like most federal regulations, there's enough poorly worded or vaguely written requirements that any investigator could find a way to fail every vehicle ever made.
Without the standards it would be difficult to hold automakers liable for defects in design or workmanship, so the standards are more useful as a means to hold automakers responsible for safety failings than they are at internal developing the optimal safe design.
The more specific they get, the more difficult it is for automakers to implement new safety technologies. For example, the safety standards were too specific about headlight design, so we ended up making headlights extremely bright all of the time in the US, for years after other countries were using adaptive headlights that dim in areas with lights and other vehicles, and brighten in dark areas.
> The US doesn’t pre-approve vehicle designs. Automakers self-certify that their vehicles comply with all applicable Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards, and NHTSA checks after the fact.
huh, did not expect this. I wonder how many vehicles currently on road would fail those checks if the NHTSA started to pay close attention?
Like most federal regulations, there's enough poorly worded or vaguely written requirements that any investigator could find a way to fail every vehicle ever made.
Without the standards it would be difficult to hold automakers liable for defects in design or workmanship, so the standards are more useful as a means to hold automakers responsible for safety failings than they are at internal developing the optimal safe design.
The more specific they get, the more difficult it is for automakers to implement new safety technologies. For example, the safety standards were too specific about headlight design, so we ended up making headlights extremely bright all of the time in the US, for years after other countries were using adaptive headlights that dim in areas with lights and other vehicles, and brighten in dark areas.
is the cybercab actually "for sale"? can they just get away with this by saying you cant actually buy it... its a rental?