Date:  Jan. 18, 2012

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Unintended Acceleration Controversy Reveals Need for NHTSA to Anticipate Safety Challenges From Automotive Electronics, Says New Report

 

WASHINGTON -- The increasing role of electronic systems in automobiles creates new safety oversight challenges that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) must address explicitly and proactively, says a new report from the National Research Council's Transportation Research Board.  As these electronics systems become more complex, interconnected, and capable, safety assurance demands will grow, as will the need to maintain public confidence in their safe performance.  NHTSA will need to become more familiar with how manufacturers design safety and security into electronics systems, identify and investigate system faults that may leave no physical trace, and respond convincingly when concerns arise about system safety.

 

The Research Council's study was requested in the aftermath of the 2009-2010 reports of sudden acceleration problems in Toyota vehicles.  NHTSA attributed these events to drivers pressing the gas pedal by mistake and to two other issues -- pedals sticking or becoming entrapped by floormats -- remedied in subsequent safety recalls.  Although NHTSA concluded that errant electronic throttle control systems (ETCs) were not a plausible cause, persistent questions led the agency to ask for further investigation by NASA, which supported NHTSA's original conclusion.  The agency also commissioned the Research Council study for advice in handling future issues involving the safe performance of automotive electronics.

 

The Research Council report finds NHTSA's decision to close its investigation of Toyota's ETC justified on the basis of the agency's investigations.  However, it is "troubling" that NHTSA could not convincingly address public concerns about the safety of automotive electronics.  Relative to the newer electronics systems being deployed and developed, ETCs are simple and mature technologies.  To respond effectively and confidently to claims of defects in the more complex electronic systems, both in present-day and future vehicles, NHTSA will require additional specialized technical expertise.

 

"It's unrealistic to expect NHTSA to hire and maintain personnel who have all of the specialized technical and design knowledge relevant to this constantly evolving field," said Louis Lanzerotti, Distinguished Research Professor at the New Jersey Institute of Technology and chair of the committee that wrote the report.  "A standing advisory committee is one way NHTSA can interact with industry and with technical experts in electronics to keep abreast of these technologies and oversee their safety.  Neither the automotive industry, NHTSA, nor motorists can afford a recurrence of something like the unintended acceleration controversy."

 

The report recommends that NHTSA establish a standing technical advisory panel of individuals with backgrounds central to the design, development, and safety assurance of automotive electronics systems.  Composed of experts on software and systems engineering, human factors, and electronics hardware, the panel should be consulted on relevant technical matters that arise throughout the agency's vehicle safety programs, including regulatory reviews, defect investigation processes, and research needs assessments.

 

NHTSA rules require that vehicles have certain safety features and capabilities, but do not prescribe how manufacturers meet these standards.  The manufacturer has the primary responsibility for designing electronics systems and for testing them to ensure that they work as intended.  In addition to setting and enforcing safety rules, one of NHTSA's main roles is to spot and investigate safety defects that escape the automotive manufacturers' own safety assurance processes and to order safety recalls when necessary.

 

The report recommends a strategic planning process to guide the agency's fulfillment of these critical responsibilities as cars become more technologically complex.  A strategic plan that engages top NHTSA leadership and defines the resources and capabilities required by the agency will help balance the mandate to be both proactive about automotive electronics and responsive to other safety priorities.  In the future, the possibility of electronics leading to increasingly autonomous vehicles presents a new set of safety challenges and will demand even more agency planning and foresight.

 

NHTSA should also conduct a comprehensive review of its Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) to determine the specific capabilities needed to monitor and investigate flaws in electronics-intensive vehicles.  The report recommends that NHTSA's research program assist ODI in finding ways to improve consumer complaint reports and other data that the office relies on to identify safety defects in vehicles and to assess their possible causes.

 

The report evaluates a number of NHTSA's rule-making and research initiatives, including the installation of event data recorders (EDRs) on all automobiles to inform safety investigations.  EDRs should be commonplace in all new vehicles, the report concurs.  It also endorses NHTSA's plan to conduct research in areas such as layouts for gas and brake pedals and intuitive designs for keyless ignition systems.  It recommends that this study be a precursor to a broader human factors research initiative in collaboration with the automotive industry to ensure that electronics systems and drivers interact safely. 

 

The study was supported by the U.S. Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.  The National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and National Research Council make up the National Academies.  They are private, nonprofit institutions that provide science, technology, and health policy advice under a congressional charter.  The Research Council is the principal operating agency of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering.  For more information, visit http://national-academies.org.  A committee roster follows.

 

Contacts: 

Lorin Hancock, Media Relations Officer

Shaquanna Shields, Media Relations Assistant

Office of News and Public Information

202-334-2138; e-mail news@nas.edu

 

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Pre-publication copies of The Safety Promise and Challenge of Automotive Electronics: Insights from Unintended Acceleration are available from the National Academies Press; tel. 202-334-3313 or 1-800-624-6242 or on the Internet at http://www.nap.edu.  Reporters may obtain a copy from the Office of News and Public Information (contacts listed above).

 

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NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL

Transportation Research Board

Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences

 

Committee on Electronic Vehicle Controls and Unintended Acceleration

Louis J. Lanzerotti* (chair)
Distinguished Research Professor
Department of Physics
New Jersey Institute of Technology
Newark

 

Dennis C. Bley
President
Buttonwood Consulting Inc.
Oakton, Va.

 

Raymond M. Brach
Professor Emeritus
Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
University of Notre Dame
South Bend, Ind.

 

Daniel Dvorak
Chief Technologist
Systems and Software Division
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Pasadena, Calif.

Deepak Goel
President
TechuServe LLC
Ann Arbor, Mich.

 

David Gerard
Associate Professor
Department of Economics
Lawrence University
Appleton, Wis.

 

Daniel N. Jackson
Professor of Computer Science
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge

 

Linos J. Jacovides*
President
Paphos Consulting
Grosse Pointe, Mich.

 

Pradeep Lall
Thomas Walter Professor
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Auburn University
Auburn, Ala.

 

John D. Lee
Emerson Professor
Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
College of Engineering
University of Wisconsin
Madison

 

Adrian K. Lund  
President
Insurance Institute for Highway Safety
Arlington, Va.

Michael Oliver  
Vice President
MAJR Products Corp.
Saegertown, Pa.

William A. Radasky
President, Founder, and Managing Engineer
Metatech Corp.
Goleta, Calif.

Nadine B. Sarter 
Associate Professor
Department of Industrial and Operations Engineering
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor

 

Jim Sturges 
Director of Engineering Processes
Lockheed Martin Corp. (retired)
Bethesda, Md.

 

Dennis F. Wilkie*
Senior Vice President
Management Consulting Division
Compass Group Ltd.
Birmingham, Mich.

STAFF

 

Thomas Menzies

Study Director

Transportation Research Board

 

Jon Eisenberg

Director

Computer Science and Telecommunications Board

 

Alan Crane

Senior Scientist

Board on Energy and Environmental Systems

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*    Member, National Academy of Engineering