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In The News

Every day the ARC Network updates the web site with valuable, important industry news. Following are a few articles from last month.

 

High Court Lets Ford/Firestone Ruling Stand The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday let stand a ruling that threw out nationwide class-action status for product liability claims by millions of owners of Ford Motor Co. Explorers and tires made by Bridgestone Corp.'s Firestone unit. The justices handed a victory to the automaker and the tire company by declining without comment to review the ruling by a U.S. appeals court in Chicago that a single trial would be unmanageable. The claims at issue do not involve any injuries or deaths, although federal regulators have linked rollover accidents involving Explorer sport utility vehicles and Firestone tires to 271 deaths and more than 800 injuries. Plaintiffs are seeking compensation for diminished resale value of the vehicles, for paying more than the owners should have for vehicles that could roll over, for tires that could lose tread, and for being put at risk of death or serious injury. Read the full article

Volvo Proposes Active Safety System Designed to Prevent Unintended Lane Departure During SAE 2003 World Congress What do cell phones, small children, lack of sleep and daydreaming have in common? They all are things that distract drivers from their main objective: to arrive safely at one's destination. Many accidents are caused by drivers' lack of attention to the road ahead. Before they realize it, they have left their intended lane and can't regain control of their vehicle. Volvo Car Corporation will unveil an active safety system to prevent unintended lane departures during the SAE 2003 World Congress, March 3-6, Cobo Center, Detroit, Michigan, USA. The Volvo Lane Departure Module consists of a camera with image processing software that detects current lane position. The camera measures distances from the camera centerline to the left and right lane markings. If a driver mismanages steering control, the torque of the steering wheel is designed to guide the driver back to the appropriate steering wheel angle required to come back in the lane. "Results from test drives indicate that, despite its simplicity, the system is fully sufficient for helping drivers stay in the lane without being perceived as an autopilot," says Jochen Pohl, Volvo Car Corporation and an author of the SAE technical paper. Read the full article

US insurers to take closer look at SUV safety An insurance industry group will take a closer look at sport utility vehicle safety on Tuesday just weeks after the top U.S. auto regulator warned car companies to build safer SUVs or face possible new regulation. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, a non-profit auto safety research group funded by insurance companies, will host two days of meetings with engineers from car makers and other researchers. They will tackle concerns with light trucks, which include SUVs, minivans, and pickups, sharing the road with smaller passenger vehicles, like compact cars. The group will focus on interior protections for drivers and passengers and on the severity of crashes between the two vehicle classes. "We're getting everyone together to see what we think are the principle components of crash incompatibility and what can be done in the short and long term to reduce them," said Brian O'Neill, the insurance institute's president. "Three things contribute to incompatibility -- weight differences, a tall vehicle colliding with a short vehicle, and a stiff vehicle colliding into a soft vehicle," O'Neill said. According to government figures, there are nearly 300 deaths per 100,000 crashes involving a large pickup and another vehicle. The figure drops to 205 when a large sport utility vehicle is involved and 151 for a smaller SUV, like a Ford Explorer. Read the full article

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