More safety voices wanted

It takes surprisingly few people to change the world – and that's one thing consumer advocate Ralph Nader wishes more people realised. "It's easier than you think," Nader told Automotive News. "Historically, a handful of people, again and again, supported by public opinion, turned the country around." Nader set in motion tremendous safety reforms in the US after the publication of his 1965 book, “Unsafe at Any Speed”, which accused carmakers of prioritising profits and styling over safety. Nader was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame on July 21. Nader, 82, says he is still on top of issues facing the industry, such as autonomous driving, airbag recalls and distracted driving. But that doesn't mean there aren't still problems that need addressing. There are plenty of "shenanigans," as Nader calls them, from sketchy rule-making on autonomous cars, to cost cutting that results in faulty parts, to industry insiders failing to take the threat of car hacking seriously. After his first book gained notoriety, Nader began hearing from automotive insiders. He says he remembers one assembly line inspector whose information resulted in a 5.4 million-vehicle recall. Voices like that inspector’s are needed even more today, says Nader. The industry faces serious safety issues, as witnessed by the ongoing Takata airbag recalls. The world is getting more complex, says Nader. And the motor vehicle industry is moving so rapidly towards technological innovation that problems can easily slip by regulators. And the changing media landscape, with the decline of local newspapers and local TV stations, means many issues are being ignored. But even today, he says, the process of change looks the same as always. "Here's the link: People of conscience inside the industry, they take their conscience to work. They're up against the bean counters, the ‘shut-up-and-work' conformists, the bureaucrats," he says. Those people see a problem and then, after bumping against walls of co-workers and leaders who don't want to listen or change, they take the issue outside. "Some of them break through.” That's always the sequence, he says. And after that, reform takes place. Although the motor vehicle industry claims autonomous vehicles will be populating highways in just a few short years, Nader says he thinks it will take at least 30 years. "The complexity involved far transcends the algorithmic arrogance of Google or others," Nader says. "They want to get into the auto business for obvious reasons, and they want to appear modern, and they want to get a lot of press, and they're getting all of that."