Automotive Design Contributions to Highway Safety

The automobile industry has an intense interest in highway safety, prompted by both humanitarian and economic considerations. Designing safety into cars is a major objective of the industry. Progress in vehicle safety helps greatly to re duce traffic hazards, but it is not a panacea. Automobile manu facturers can encourage and facilitate safe driving, but they can not guarantee it nor provide immunity to the consequences of unsafe driving. Designing safety into automobiles is a complex operation. Many technical, economic, and legal factors must be carefully considered to assure that innovations are practical and in the public interest. Automotive safety development involves both co-operative industry-wide activities and competitive ef forts. Both have important values. The automobile indus try's interest in safety dates from its earliest days. Outstanding examples of steady progress include greatly enhanced durability, improved brakes, lighting and steering, welded all-steel bodies, safety glass, improved tires, increased field of vision, better suspension, and various designs and devices for protection against crash injury. The better performance of today's cars at normal speeds is often a safety aid. Increased horsepower has not resulted in a substantial increase in maximum speed. Much further progress in automotive safety can be expected. However, the driverless or "driverproof" car is not imminent.