Detroit \u2014 After Toyota\u2019s sudden acceleration woes comes the sudden acceleration of federal regulation. A House panel heard testimony this morning on Henry Waxman\u2019s House Energy and Commerce Committee\u2019s proposal to vastly increase the scope of NHTSA regulation over automakers. Will it help prevent another mass recall like Toyota just experienced? No, agree industry insiders.<\/P>
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Indeed, the last such spasm of Washington regulation (acronym: TREAD) \u2013 implemented in 2002 after Firestone tread separation caused Ford truck rollovers \u2014 expanded NHTSA\u2019s powers \u201cto fix weaknesses in the collection and analysis of auto-defect data, and required manufacturers to provide the agency with access to a mountain of data that had been previously off-limits, primarily related to possible product defects . . . in order to create an \u2018early warning system\u2019 to catch defects before they became deadly.\u201d<\/P>
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Here we go again. But results aren\u2019t the intention of the new regulation. The intention is to show that the feds are \u201cdoing something\u201d while expanding the power of Democratic safety lobby and tort lawyer special interests. The \u201cMotor Vehicle Safety Act of 2010\u201d details include: <\/P>
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\u2013 A brand new bureaucracy within NHTSA called the \u201cCenter for Vehicle Electronics and Emerging Technologies.\u201d This despite the fact that there is no evidence Toyota\u2019s sudden acceleration problem is electronic. All evidence points to mechanical glitches like sticky pedals and floor mats. And lots and lots of driver error. But Congress has embraced the tort lawyer mantra that there are \u201cgremlins in the electronics\u201d \u2013 so we get a new anti-gremlin department.<\/P>
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\u2013 A new tax on vehicles. Called the \u201cVehicle Safety Fund\u201d (after all, more bureaucrats must be funded), the fee will rise to $9 over three years. Like that laundry list of fees on your phone bill? The vehicle safety fee opens the floodgates for the same on automobile stickers.<\/P>
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\u2013 Washington-knows-best engineering requirements. The bill requires vehicle technologies like brake override, a pedal placement standard, keyless ignitions to allegedly make cars easier to turn off, and even new rules requiring \u201can intuitive configuration and labeling of gear shifting controls for drivers.\u201d Apparently, P-R-N-D-L is too complicated for us dumb Americans.<\/P>
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\u2013 Upgraded event-data recorder equipment. Like the black boxes used in aircraft.<\/P>
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\u2013 Public complaint disclosure. A rule forcing automakers to disclose every customer safety complaint \u2013 without investigation, cause, or validity. Rep. Mike Rogers, (R., Mich.) calls it \u201can all you can eat buffet for trial lawyers.\u201d <\/P>
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All of this added cost comes in the midst of the worst industry downturn in auto sales in a generation. But Washington, it seems, comes first.<\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Detroit \u2014 After Toyota\u2019s sudden acceleration woes comes the sudden acceleration of federal regulation. A House panel heard testimony this morning on Henry Waxman\u2019s House Energy and Commerce Committee\u2019s proposal to vastly increase the scope of NHTSA regulation over automakers. Will it help prevent another mass recall like Toyota just experienced? No, agree industry insiders. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4851"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4851"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4851\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4852,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4851\/revisions\/4852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}