The MVSA has passed its final committee-level hurdle, passing the Senate Commerce Committee by unanimous vote [full Senate version in PDF here, summary here]. The Act now faces votes by the full House and Senate, with only one major issue differentiating the two: the House version includes a “vehicle safety user fee” on new car sales, while the Senate version does without, thanks. Either way, NHTSA gets its budget doubled to $280m by 2013, so the difference is pretty academic. Other minor quibbles include whether or not to cap NHTSA’s fining power at $200m or $300m per defect. Somehow I think they’ll work it out. Look for the bill to move towards President Obama’s desk at distinctly un-legislative speed. After all, a little pork always helps… and the Senate Commerce Committee also just approved a bill (S.1938) ordering the DOT to grant $94m per year to states with hands-free laws for enforcement of those laws, distracted driver awareness education road signs. Who likes the smell of legislation?
Tag: Government
Oklahoma is preparing an unprecedented statewide deployment of automated ticketing machines designed to generate $95 million in revenue. Instead of using red light cameras and speed cameras, the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety (DPS) is preparing to sign a contract with a for-profit company that will track all passing motorists with a network of at least twenty automated license plate recognition (ALPR, also known as ANPR) cameras. The devices would also “generate significant additional revenues” by issuing $250 citations for expired insurance using the Oklahoma Compulsory Insurance Verification System (OCIVS) database that went live in July 2009.
Being accused by a speed camera now provides sufficient evidence for police in Western Australia to confiscate a car. On Friday, a 49-year-old man lost his Porsche 944 Turbo because a combination red light camera and speed camera accused him of driving 130km/h in a 60 zone (80 MPH in a 37 zone) at the intersection of Riverside Drive and Barrack Street in Perth. The cameras began ticketing drivers at that location on May 7.
Got a nice empty property in an industrial park in Germany? Centrally located, close to a major airport like Frankfurt, or Munich would be a plus? Then we know some Chinese you may want to talk to. They are in Shenzhen and work for BYD. BYD is coming to Europe. And they want to put their European HQ right into the German hornet’s nest. (Read More…)
Anyone still feel like arguing that Cash For Clunkers was a good use of nearly $3b? [Coyoteblog, via Instapundit]
Our Canadian pal carquestions took a look through NHTSA’s public complaint database, and found four examples of personal information that NHTSA should have redacted but didn’t. You kow, things like names, birth dates, social security numbers, addresses, VINs, and drivers license numbers. And he found those four after searching through “12 or 15” of the 792,000 publicly-available NHTSA complaint cases. He’s calling on NHTSA to shut down public access to the database until it can get a handle on this problem. (The NHTSA listened.) (Read More…)
In a 5-1 decision yesterday, Ohio’s Supreme Court upheld a speeding ticket based solely on how fast a driver appeared to be moving. The court considered the case of motorist Mark Jenney who drove through a State Route 21 radar speed trap operated by Copley police officer Christopher R Santimarino on July 3, 2008. Santimarino guessed based on the appearance of Jenney’s black SUV that it was traveling at 79 MPH in a 60 zone.
China has finally revealed its worst kept secret and announced a pilot program for five Chinese cities. It’s raining cash for buyers of electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids. And it “reflects Beijing’s resolve to foster domestic brands,” says Reuters.
Really? At first glance, there is no discrimination against laowei cars. (Read More…)
A handful of bills advanced in the California legislature last week that, if enacted, would restrict the ability of local jurisdictions to use red light cameras to generate revenue. Some proposals make minor tweaks, while others, like Senate Bill 949, strike down ordinances specifically designed to boost municipal profit margins. The state Senate approved this bill 28 to 0 last Friday sending a warning to jurisdictions like Alameda County, Long Beach, Oakland, Riverbank and Roseville which have set up their own traffic ticketing and red light camera ordinances that bypass the requirements of state law.
Technical experts analyzing GM’s request for $1.35b in Opel aid from the German government have reported back, and the signs aren’t looking good. According to the Financial Times, the experts advising a political committee that will rule on Opel aid next week returned a negative outlook on The General’s request. German officials tell the newspaper that
the technical experts’ stance was “formally not a complete No” but that it “meant No in practice”
GM is requesting €1.9b in loans for its €3.7b restructuring of Opel. Though it looks like the €1.2b ($1.35b) it is requesting from Germany will be turned down, some portion of that amount might still be awarded by local German state governments. If that scenario plays out though, more employment cuts could be in order for Opel’s German production staff.
The South Carolina House of Representatives voted Thursday to make the state’s ban on photo radar explicit. In 2006, the office of the attorney general issued an opinion stating automated ticketing conflicted with state law, but Ridgeland officials decided to ignore the ruling and operate a speed camera van on Interstate 95. The town of 2500 wants to deploy cameras to ticket out-of-state drivers as they pass through the seven-mile stretch within the town’s limits.
The Detroit News reports that the Treasury Department has hired Lazard Frères & Co. as an advisor to GM’s forthcoming IPO sale. And with news of the hiring comes confirmation that GM’s IPO really is coming soon: the investment bank will receive half a million dollars, according to the DetN, but that amount will drop to $250,000 if the IPO isn’t completed within one year. If you’re one of the GM boosters who believes that an IPO will repay all or most of the government’s investment in GM, it’s time to start saving those pennies. You have less than a year now to put your money where your mouth has been.
The Detroit News reports that two versions of the Electric Drive Vehicle Deployment Act of 2010 will be introduced today in the House and Senate. Both bills would spend about $11b by sending $800 million to $1 billion five to eight “deployment communities.” One of the EDVDA’s bipartisan sponsors, Rep Judy Biggert (R-IL) explains that these funds
will help regional communities establish themselves as models for the development and installation of the next generation of transportation infrastructure, including public charging stations
The bill is being backed by several small EV firms, like A123 Systems and Bright Automotive, under the rubric of the Electrification Coalition. And despite the fact that everyone loves a good subsidy, the mainstream automakers are not amused.
With the autoblogosphere abuzz over Peter Cheney’s “unintended acceleration event,” Jill McIntosh has made a fascinating connection between one auto-journo’s son’s voyage of manual transmission discovery, and a former Ontario Attorney General’s killing of a cyclist back in September. Linking to a Toronto Star report on the trial of Michael Bryant, who killed cyclist Darcy Allan Shephard, McIntosh notes a strange similarity between that fatal incident and Cheney Junior’s garage door tango:
According to a statement read in court, reprinted in the Toronto Star today: Bryant hits the brakes. His vehicle stalls. Bryant tries to start his car, but it stalls again, lurching forward … Bryant tries to start the car again. He’s concentrating on the Saab’s sensitive clutch with his head down. He succeeds at restarting the engine and the Saab accelerates into Sheppard, who lands on the hood.
Obviously, two incidents do not a crisis make, but this is hardly the only evidence suggesting that manual gear-swapping is fast becoming a lost art. But do we really want to further stigmatize manual transmissions by mandating special licenses for manual-equipped cars, as McIntosh suggests?
The House Energy And Commerce Committee has passed an amended version of the Motor Vehicle Safety Act that was previously approved by its Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection. True to our prediction, longtime auto industry ally Rep John Dingell (D-MI) was able to maintain caps on NHTSA’s fining power at $200m per automaker per defect recall (up from the current cap of $16.4m) and $5m per auto executive per defect, and require that NHTSA inform automakers and allow for an appeal before invoking the “imminent hazard” powers authorized by the bill. Dingell tells Automotive News [sub] that
The bill is going to be a hard one for the industry to accept, but I believe it’s in the public interest and is good overall.
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