Backseat Driver

Car safety advocates, manufacturers, and lawmakers have clashed over whether to make automobiles safer. All sides armed themselves with data in the hopes of winning the great car safety debates.In this way, crash statistics and the analysts who studied them made history.

Auteur

Norma Faris Hubele, the author of Backseat Driver, The Role of Data in Great Car Safety Debates, has been active in car consumer advocacy for over 30 years. She has been involved in more than 120 individual plaintiff cases as an expert witness in statistics and automotive safety. As a full professor at Arizona State University, she held various leadership positions including the Director of Strategic Initiatives at the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering. She is co-author of the widely used textbook Engineering Statistics, 5th Edition. Currently, she is the founder of www.TheAutoProfessor.com, a free website for modern car safety ratings and information.

Texte du rabat

Buying the safest car for your family shouldn't be up for debate.

Yet for decades, car safety advocates, manufacturers, and lawmakers in the United States have clashed over whether to make automobiles safer. All sides armed themselves with data in the hopes of winning the great car safety debates.

In this way, crash statistics and the analysts who studied them made history. But data was always in the backseat, merely supporting different points of view. That is, until now.

"With car safety, it's the value we place on every human life that counts."

Automobile safety expert Dr. Norma Faris Hubele delivers a lively discussion of the role data plays in protecting you and your family on the road. You'll gain a greater appreciation for how:

• A WWI pilot's near-death experience birthed the U.S. car safety movement
• Data from real car crashes helped create the first vehicle safety standards
• A shift toward fuel-efficient cars affected fatality risk in the 1970s-1980s versus now
• Vehicle size has changed, and the problems that creates for you and others sharing the road
• Car safety rating systems, even when limited, empower consumers and motivate manufacturers
• Federal regulators decide whether to issue a safety recall on your vehicle
• Data's role is evolving with the advent of driver-assist and self-driving technologies

Contenu

Glossary of Selected Terms

Chapter 1. Introduction

Chapter 2. A Strange Start for a Movement

Chapter 3. Crash Data Make a Difference

Chapter 4. Measuring Progress with Data

Chapter 5. The Roof Crush Resistance Debate

Chapter 6. The Incompatibility Debate

Chapter 7. The Fuel Efficiency Debate

Chapter 8. The Safety Ratings Debate

Chapter 9. Two Recall Debates

Chapter 10. The Automated Driver-Assistance Systems Debate

Chapter 11. The Self-Driving Car Debate

Acknowledgements

Endnotes

Index