Automobile Safety

Secondly, the safety features on the car are vastly superior to the ones on the truck. The car has breaking points all over its body, so that in a wreck it will be damaged worse to soften the impact. The truck just has a rigid steel body designed to stay intact, while that’s better for repairs, it’s not better for injuries. My car also has airbags, anti-lock brakes, and a three point seat belt. The truck has a two point seatbelt also known as a lap belt. The car is remarkably safer.

Cars are something that almost every person has or will use in their everyday life or need to use their car to get to and from work or school everyday. Well in this paper you will learn about what technology has done to change the Automotive Industry as well as your everyday life. This paper will be focusing on the Technologies inside of the car, along with the Technologies that keep you safe and also a little bit about Self-Driving Cars. So fasten your seatbelts while you are reading this paper.

Today, auto manufacturers show off their safety ratings and innovations while in 1963, “automobile companies were reluctant to emphasize the safety features of their cars...focus… on the potential hazards of driving and hence decrease sales”(Yao 1). Older car makers clearly cared more about sales over safety. Showing this proves the reason why cars used different materials and different technology in 1963. Spending more money on materials and less on safety features brought in sales back then because that was the culture back then. In contrast to the dangerously low amount of safety features a 1963 car had, “Hyundai’s Sonata has earned a Top Safety Pick rating from the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety when equipped with optional Automatic Emergency Braking and LED headlights with Dynamic Bending Lights”(Warburton 1).

Shopping for a car, SUV, or truck today is just like putting together the perfect outfit complete with the ideal accessories. When shopping for the perfect “ride,” not only does the buyer have a wide range of choices, but the buyer also has a wide range of accessories or options from which to choose. Yes, price does play the most major role in a vehicle's purchase. The days of the 70s when one could buy a new car for $4,000 plus have vanished just like the days of the cowboy riding off into the sunset on his favorite horse Trigger. But after the physical reactions of the sticker price shock, what does a driver need when rolling down the road? What options or accessories, does her or she need for a safe, comfortable ride?

Mechanical equipment needs to be maintained to run effectively. This includes your car, especially since you rely on your vehicle to get you to work, school or to drive your children around town. When you don't maintain your vehicle with a regular tune-up, you can run into serious problems that could cost thousands to repair.

Every day, thousands of individuals fall victim to motor vehicle accidents and obtain serious injuries. But in regards to innovations such as seat belts and airbags, this number has decreased. Safety innovations have changed throughout history. In the 1930’s, individuals were required to wear safety glasses in their vehicles, in the late 1950’s, occupants were allowed to choose whether they wanted headrests on the front seats, which we know understand to be a crucial part of a car as it prevents whiplash. More recently there have been new innovations such as tire pressure monitors and traction control which further contributes to reducing the number of roadside accidents. However, it is clear that there is still a large area for improvement.

In the recent years, the United States government has been enforcing stricter mandates on auto manufacturers to create safer vehicles, and on construction companies to create safer roadways. Matthew Jensen wrote a dissertation for the Graduate School of Clemson University titled, A Methodology for the Analysis of In-vehicle Operating Data and Design of Intelligent Vehicle Systems for Improved Automotive Safety. In his abstract, Jensen evaluated the future of vehicle manufacturing and traffic-related incidents. Of course, every year more vehicles are manufactured, which in theory means the number of miles driven in vehicles increases. He points out how the World Health Organization (WHO) found that automobile crashes was the ninth

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All in all, from the mechanics and brakes, to the seatbelts, we believe that if you have a classic car on your hands they tend to be reliable and safe.

Another social aspect is the danger it can put other drives in if they “roll over” or have an accident. A top U.S. auto-safety regulator said SUV and pickup trucks aren't safe enough due to rollover risks and consumers should think twice about buying them. "The thing I don't understand is people, when they choose to buy a vehicle, they might go sit in it and say, 'Gee, I feel safe,'" said Dr. Jeffery Runge, head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, “Well, sorry, but you know gut instinct is great for a lot of stuff, but it's not very good for buying a safe automobile." Runge, who served as an emergency room physician for 20 years before becoming head of the NHTSA, said SUV drivers are especially vulnerable to fatal rollovers because the vehicles' high center of gravity makes them more likely to tip during sudden maneuvers. Runge also added that rollovers accounted for just 3 percent of all U.S. auto accidents in 2001 but caused nearly a third of all vehicle-occupant fatalities, and an SUV occupant were more than three times more likely to die as a result of a rollover than an occupant of a passenger car. (NHTSA: SUVs not safe enough , 2003) Some sickening facts, of the estimated 6,394,000 police-reported motor vehicle traffic crashes during 2000, 41,821 people were killed -- an increase of 0.2 percent over 1999. 3,189,000 people were injured in motor vehicle traffic crashes and 4,286,000

SUV’s have become the center of a large controversy in the last couple of years. Many studies have been conducted on the relation to the economy and the popularity of the SUV. The sport utility vehicle not only affects the economy with its gas-guzzling capabilities during a time of war, but with the safety questions that have continued to arise.

Seat belts although they are the most effective safety device on cars must be made safer. Out of all people who died in car accidents, 63% of those were not wearing seat belts (seatbelts). This goes to show you the effectiveness of seat belt. Therefore automotive manufactures must mandate the installation of 5-point seatbelt on all cars. In all major race car organization such as NASCAR (National Association Stock Car Automotive Racing) they require these 5-point seat belt. Which is nothing more than a seatbelt that is buckled in 5 spots rather that the conventional 3.

“a consumer buying a car may not be informed fully about the safety features of various models or may not have adequate information to evaluate the importance or usefulness of various options (e.g., antilock brakes, four-wheel drive, side cross beams to reduce the damage from a side collision). The information asymmetry about those models or features is common and may allow an "aggressive" sales person to exploit the buyer's ignorance” (Englander & Moy, 2003).

SUVs may easily survive front-side collisions, but they are not free of safety risks. Though they contain safety systems such as antilock brakes, independent suspensions, and computerized monitoring systems (Gibney, sc. 1), they also have narrow tracks, soft suspension, and a high centers of gravity. Such qualities make them unstable enough that they require a "High Rollover Risk" warning brand from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). According to NHTSA statistics based on a "proportional comparison between a vehicle's center of gravity and the width between its tires," the Ford Explorer, for example, registers a 30-40% risk of rolling (Gibney, sc. 1). Together, SUVs roll as often as 240,000 times per year, causing 25,000 injuries and 10,000 deaths annually (Muller and Welch 51). NHTSA further estimates that as

Automobiles are destroying everything. Automobiles are cars, trucks, SUVs, and pretty much anything with wheels and a motor that can be used for transportation. The relationship between humans and automobiles is important, but it is becoming a problem because a majority of humans have automobiles. Automobiles are complex machines that are affecting humans in many ways. These complicated machines pollute the air because they emit gases into the air. In most states, when teens turn 16 they are eligible to drive these machines and can create a danger to the public. To keep automobiles running the owner must invest money into gas, engine maintenance, insurance, and more. Automobiles put people in danger, harm the planet, and cost large amounts of money to maintain.