...COLLISION WARNING WITH AUTO BRAKE A REAL-LIFE SAFETY PERSPECTIVE Erik Coelingh Lotta Jakobsson Henrik Lind Magdalena Lindman Volvo Car Corporation Sweden Paper Number 07-0450 ABSTRACT Automotive safety has gained an increasing amount of interest from the general public, governments, and the car industry. This is more than justified by traffic accident statistics, as each year around 1.2 million people die due to road traffic accidents. For these reasons safety remains a core value of Volvo Cars. This paper presents some of the latest active safety developments within Volvo Cars. Rear-end collisions are common accident scenarios and a common cause of these accidents is driver distraction and thus not reacting in time. No vehicle system is a substitute for the most important safety feature in any vehicle: the driver. However, Volvo is harnessing innovative technologies to help alert drivers to avoid potential collisions and reduce the potential impact speed when a collision cannot be avoided. One of those systems is Collision Warning with Auto Brake where the area in front of the vehicle is continuously monitored with the help of a longrange radar and a forward-sensing wide-angle camera fitted in front of the interior rear-view mirror. A warning and brake support will be provided for collisions with other vehicles, both moving and stationary. Additionally, if the driver does not intervene in spite of the warning and the possible collision is judged to be unavoidable; intervention...
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...Ford Pinto Case Solution The Ford Pinto was a disaster waiting to happen. The damage that the Lee Iacocca and Ford executives allow to happen was not only tragic but they were preventable. Because of Lee Iacoccas hurry and pressure of the creation of the auto was high, and this lead to the unfortunate dilemma. The Ford Pinto study has shown that Iacocca put to high of a demand on the team that was responsible for the creation of the Pinto. Fist the Pinto should never gone into production before some very important tests were completed, one of which was a complete crash study. Its known that Ford engineers knew that rear collision tests needed to be done but ignored until after the auto was put in to production. This one test could have saved hundreds of lives. Solution to dilemma In the late 1960s, the standard time to spend in development of a car was roughly 4 years. The engineers of the pinto only had 2. There would have been more testing for the safety of the passengers through a when it came to the placement of the gas tank or the bumper. Once the Testing was done the engineers would have known that with “A rear-end collision of about twenty-eight miles per hour or more would crush the car's rear end, driving the fuel tank against the differential housing and causing it to split and the filler pipe to break loose” thus resulting in fatal accidents. Because of the results of the tests a baffle would have been placed between the gas tanks for protection...
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...Business Ethics - Assignment 1 Case Study: At the beginning of the 1960's, the Ford Motor Company was facing great competition from foreign automobile manufacturers. The Japanese companies, Toyota and Datsun, were importing fuel-efficient, low-cost automobiles. Every year the Japanese companies were capturing larger portions of the U.S. automobile retail market and profits of American auto manufactures were spiraling downward. The president of Ford at that time was Lee Iaccoca, who was desperately in need of a new model car that could be quickly and cheaply manufactured. The “Pinto” was the result. It was small, weighing only 2000 lbs.; it was cheap, costing less than $2000 to make; and it was quick, going from design to market in only two years. Because most automobile designs require four years to materialize for the public, the pinto was truly a rush job. The styling of the Pinto required that the fuel tank be placed behind the rear axle. This placement made the fuel tank more susceptible to puncturing in a rear-end collision, spilling of fuel into the passenger space, and greater likelihood of related fires following accidents. During early crash testing of the Pinto, Ford determined that in rear-end collisions below a 20 mph impact speed the gas tank would sometimes rupture. Based upon three general criteria, Ford engineers decided to proceed with the manufacture of the Pinto. 1) Engineers and executives of Ford considered the Pinto to be as safe as...
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...Case Analysis: Pinto Fires Introduction Greed is the root to evil or at least the motivation behind some corporations making a good, ethical decision. The Ford Motor Company fell into a trap of greed that would cost many human lives. Before the disaster of the Pinto Fires, Ford had a reputation as being the safety pioneer in the automobile industry with additions such as the seat belts. However, as the invention of small cars began to take emerge Ford began to loose market shares to the foreign market. Ford had to do something and quick. Foreign markets were beginning to show promise with the vehicles that were going to put out on the market. The Ford Motor Company began to feel the pressure and felt that it needed to be in the limelight of the competition. Lee Iococca, the CEO of Ford, decided that it was time for a change and thus the Ford Pinto was introduced. However, the Pinto had numerous flaws that cost the Ford Company more than ever anticipated. Relevant facts During the 1960's the demand for sub-compact cars was rising on the market. Ford Motor Company, in competition with the foreign market, decided to introduce the Ford Pinto. The Ford Pinto was going to be the new wave for the Ford Company, but it was soon discovered that numerous problems existed. For example, the time that it took to manufacture an automobile was down from three and a half years to just over two years. Before production, however, the engineers at Ford discovered a major flaw in the cars...
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...Ford Pinto: A Study of Ethics In the 1960s Ford Motor Company, under pressure from stakeholders and the pressures involved in competing with the foreign vehicle market set out to manufacture a vehicle that was smaller, lighter and less expensive than the competition’s product. This vehicle was designed and moved into production within 2 years, much quicker than the 3 ½ year company norm and is still the shortest vehicle production planning schedule in history. The result: The Ford Pinto. While the Pinto was in the design phase it was decided that the fuel tank would be placed under the rear fender instead of over the rear axel to allow for more trunk room in the car. This design however, was quite flawed. The Pinto being smaller than the other American made cars was not built using the same frame design; a design that was manufactured to prevent the fuel tank from exploding upon a rear impact collision. Upon testing a serious defect was found with the placement of the fuel tank. It was determined that if the Pinto was involved in a rear end collision the fuel tank may rupture and burst into flames causing serious injury or death to the passengers. Team A will be examining the ethical dilemmas involved in the case and the solutions that we would recommend today and the solutions that would have been ethically appropriate in 1971. Lee Iacocca was the president of Ford Motor Company in 1971 and was the directive authority behind the creation of the Ford Pinto. He wanted a...
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...The Six Principals of Scientific thinking Student’s Name Institution Affiliation Introduction Various scientific concepts have greatly impacted the manner in which people approach everyday issues as well as think about life in general. The six scientific principles of thinking happen to be the concept, which has greatly affected people’s thinking as well as reasoning behavior. This concept is dependent on the primary aspects of psychology. It is applied within each and every level of scientific thinking categories. This only means that such principles are utilized in tests, problem solving, as well as solution valuations. All scientific thinking, which take part in an individual’s daily activities happen to be best enhanced using the six principles of scientific thinking. Such principles include: correlation vs. causation fallacy, ruling out rival hypothesis, falsifiability, extra ordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, reliability, and Occam’s razor. Extra ordinary claims This is a scientific thinking principal, which argues that extra ordinary claims need extraordinary evidence. In other words, the more an argument contradicts what people know already, the more convincing the evidence has to be prior to people accepting the claim. For instance, a sight on the internet “where does big foot live in North America,” reports that the encounters of Bigfoot get report throughout North America. It argues that Bigfoot is seen in every kind of climate as...
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...cut corners and restricted their ability to design a car the way it should be designed. Therefore, the Ford Pinto is known to be one of the most dangerous cars produced in automotive history due to several serious design flaws. Daniel Boyce wrote an article titled “Ford Pinto Case Information”. In his article, he claimed that “Pinto’s problems originated with the placement of the gas tank. At that time of automobile production, it was customary to place the gas tank between the rear axle and the bumper, which would give the vehicle more trunk space. The only other place the gas tank would be mounted was above the rear axle, but that eliminated trunk space, and the developers of the Pinto wanted the most practical car they could produce. The gas tank was nine inches away from the rear axle. This might not seem like a big deal, but there were other parts of the Pinto that cause this to be deadly”. In addition, another small design flaw was the rear bumper attached to the Pinto. Usually bumpers are connected to the car chassis or something with strength and they can provide a small degree of protection. The Pinto’s bumper was only ornamental and provided absolutely no protection. In a rear end collision, the Pinto would crumple...
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...Ford Pinto Case In the 1970’s the Ford Pinto was debuted. It was debuted without regards to safety features and concern for society. The biggest concern regarding the role the company played was the concern for cutting costs and the hunger for making the biggest profit exceeding other competitors. Proper corporate morals and principles laid out to be followed were severally jeopardized with the release of this new model. The lack of interest for human life initiated dozens of lawsuits against Ford Motor Company which in the end resulted in a far larger cost than it would have been installing a simple, low cost, safety feature to prevent the loss of lives to come. Ford was struggling to keep up with competitors and there solution was the Ford Pinto. From the beginning Lee Iacocca, CEO of ford, wanted this new model to be designed and produced fast. This is documented when they state “they only had 25 months rather than the usual 43 months for a new car line” (DeGeorge 298). After development and before the car is released to the market the car must go through a range of tests to make sure the vehicle meets motor safety guidelines. Ford did not follow protocol and released the Ford Pinto without testing. It wasn’t until after the car was released that Ford decided to test the vehicle. It was then they found that the rear-end impact failed in accordance to the standard safety procedures even though there was no National Highway Traffic Safety Administration rear-end impact standard...
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...THE FORD PINTO CASE The scandal and the trial On August 10, 1978, a tragic automobile accident occurred on U.S. Highway 33 near Goshen, Indiana. Sisters Judy and Lynn Ulrich (ages 18 and 16, respectively) and their cousin Donna Ulrich (age 18) were struck from the rear in their 1973 Ford Pinto by a van. The gas tank of the Pinto ruprured, the car burst into flames and the three teenagers were burned to death. Subsequently an Elkhart County grand jury returned a criminal homicide charge against Ford, the first ever against an American corporation. During the following 20-week trial, Judge Harold R. Staffeld advised the jury that Ford should be convicted of reckless homicide if it were shown that the company had engaged in “plain, conscious and unjustifiable disregard of harm that might result (from its actions) and the disregard involves a substantial deviation from acceptable standards of conduct”. The key phrase around which the trial hinged, of course, is “acceptable standards”. Did Ford knowingly and recklessly choose profit over safety in the design and placement of the Pinto's gas tank? Elkhart County prosecutor Michael A. Cosentino and chief Ford attorney James F. Neal battled dramatically over this issue in a rural Indiana courthouse. Meanwhile, American business anxiously awaited the verdict which could send warning ripples through board rooms across the nation concerning corporate responsibility and product liability. The Pinto controversy In 1977 the...
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...Utilitarian Analysis The Case of the Ford Pinto The Ford Pinto first rolled off the Ford Motor Co. production lines in 1971 and stayed in production in its original state until 1978. The vehicle engineers were tasked to develop the vehicle and put it into production within 25 months, which was nearly half the time in which the average new vehicle is put into production. The Ford engineers were aware that rear-end impact safety tests were pretty standard at the time, but they were not required by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration at that time. The vehicle was rushed into production anyway to compete with foreign compact cars being developed by the Japanese during that time period. Only after the vehicle was made available to the public was the vehicle tested. The Ford Pinto ended up failing the rear safety test, due to the fact that it was susceptible to fire from rear end collisions. Ford engineers determined that the problem could be resolved by installing a baffle, which protected the gas tank from being punctured during rear-end collisions. The part would have only cost between $6.65 and $11 to be install, but the Ford Motor Co. determined through cost-benefit analysis that the cost of lawsuits would be less than the cost of installing the baffle and decided not to install the baffle. Ford Motor Co. also failed to notify customers of the problem and offer them the option to have the baffle installed. Between 1971 and 1978 the Ford Pinto would...
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...Kyle Cady 20 April 2015 ENG 122-001 Professor Taylor Us Against The Cameras. Have you ever received a ticket for running a red light? If not, maybe you know someone who has, or you’ve witnessed that flash of light going off while sitting at an intersection. Either way you’re not alone, hundreds of U.S. citizens fall victim to red light camera tickets daily. Imagine you’re driving home from a hard day of work, and you have been driving the same exact route for the last seven years without receiving a red light camera citation. One day to your surprise you open the mail and find not one, but four separate tickets for rolling through a right turn on red. You begin to get a sick feeling in your stomach when you realize that each ticket is going to cost you 100 dollars. Sounds horrible, right? This is a true story that happened to a women named Oumou Wague, from Chicago. “I was stunned,” the 42 year old hair salon owner said in an interview. “I knew right away there was something wrong. I knew that camera was broken, but you can’t fight City Hall- and that is a fact.”(Kidwell and Richards). Like many other stories out there, Wague was caught by a faulty camera system. After averaging just three tickets a day, the camera that caught her was suddenly averaging 33 tickets per day, then out of nowhere the ticket spree ended (Kidwell and Richards). Many question whether or not these red light camera systems were malfunctioning or being tinkered with by local authorities. Instead of...
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...the action. James Rachel states “This principle requires that whenever we have a choice between alternative actions or social policies, we must choose the one that has the best overall consequences for everyone concerned.” It is easy to call an act unethical based on first sight, but utilitarianism forces a calculation to look deeper and to identify the best consequences of the act. This is uncomfortable in society due to the selfishness of the individual citizen. One may not be happy if they are of the few who are receiving the negative side of a decision which impacts everyone else for the greatest good and for the most people possible. From this philosophical standpoint, cost benefit analysis would be a natural outcome. The Ford Pinto case is based upon act utilitarianism’s approach to making a decision using a cost benefit analysis and whether that action makes the best ethical outcome for all involved. In 1968, Ford Motor Company had a decision to make as to whether it would compete in the subcompact automotive market. Ford needed to quickly introduce a small, fuel efficient, and cheap car on the market to compete with Japanese and European imports. The Pinto was to be the answer to the competition, and Lee Iacocca wanted to insure that Ford would react quickly and efficiently. According to Mark Dowie in his Mother Jones article,“ The Pinto engineers had an important goal set by Iacocca known at the ‘the limits of 2,000’. The Pinto was not to weigh an once over 2000 pounds...
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...The Ford Pinto Case In the late 1960’s Ford Motor Company wanted to produce a small model car to compete with small Japanese and German imports like Volkswagen, Datsun and Toyota (Danley). In 1969 Ford’s Board approved the plan to produce the Pinto. The CEO, Lee Iacocca, wanted a car that was low weight, under 2,000 pounds, and low cost, under $2,000. Lee “Iaccoca imposed the 2000/2000 rule, i.e., the Pinto could weigh no more than 2000 pounds and cost no more than $2000” (Danley). The engineers had about two years to design and manufacture a product. The 1971 Pinto went into production in 1970. The quick turnaround of the Ford Pinto was huge as the normal time frame to bring a new product to market was about three and a half years. Due to the quick design and production of the Ford Pinto, the car was not put through the normal tests until after production. When put through the rear-end test, it was determined to be below normal standards for cars of that size. For cars of this size, the standard was to place the fuel tank above the rear axle. However, Ford felt placing the gas tank above the rear axle didn’t leave enough trunk space. Therefore, the fuel tank on the Pinto was placed behind the rear axle, close to the back bumper. The design was such that if the car was impacted from the rear at 20 miles per hour or greater, a bolt would puncture the tank and possibly cause the car to erupt in flames. Ford Motor Company was determined to continuing manufacturing...
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...Running Head: CASE STUDY Case Study Team MGT/216 09/13/10 Teacher Abstract Take a step back into the past, 1971 to be exact, imagine being a proud new owner of a popular and affordable vehicle, the Pinto. The vehicle is perfect for the tight budgeted and built by a trusted company (Ford). Then the unexpected happens, it is in a rear end accident. Upon the accident the car explodes. Sounds like a bad dream, right! (See video link in PowerPoint presentation) The following discusses a similar story that will from here forward be in reference as the Pinto Case, in which Ford was accused of being at fault for selling a shoddy car to the public. Were they at fault? What was the ethical dilemma? What were the social pressures? All of this and more is here within in detail. Pinto Case Study When Ford Motor Company had to determine what action to take in regards to the pinto many considerations were made. The company had to decide whether to install a baffle on the Ford Pinto to prevent the possibility of a puncture in the gas tank by a bolt from the bumper. The issue was found during a test done after the car was in production and on sale in the U.S. The gas tank is in the back of the car. During a rear-end test it was found that if a car travels more than 20 miles per hour and is hit from behind it is possible that a bolt from the bumper can puncture the gas tank. This can cause an explosion. Ford had the choice...
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...Marie Elkins Professor Mcdonald English 1302-73010 13 February 2011 A Case against Red Light Cameras In recent years technology has played an increasingly vital role in the enforcement of traffic violations and motorist safety, but not all advancements have been welcomed by the driving public. Over the last decade many cities and states have begun using red light traffic cameras to catch and fine motorists in an effort to motivate the public to drive more safely. In theory it makes great sense, however when put into practice it has yielded mixed results at best. While the number of citations issued has gone up dramatically the number of accidents has not. In fact many intersections with red light cameras installed have seen an increase in accidents. It is clear that the safety of the general population is paramount, but is red light cameras the most effective way to proceed? Once the data is analyzed it is clear that there are far safer alternatives that will also save taxpayers a great deal of money over red light cameras. In a September 2004 study by the Texas Transportation Institute conducted by James Benneson, P.E., many aspects of the way red light cameras operate were broken down by the researchers. It was discovered that in most instances the red light cameras issued citations within the first second of the light turning red. Almost all incidents of people being cited for running the red light occurred when the light turned red while the vehicle was already in the...
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