Book: “Backseat Driver: The Role of Data in Great Car Safety Debates”
Staff Reports | Digital Free Press
A vehicle rolls over. A child dies. Trucks get bigger for more protection, but people still die.
The recently released book, “Backseat Driver: The Role of Data in Great Car Safety Debates” by Norma Faris Hubele, examines how U.S. interest groups use data to argue whether enough harm has occurred to warrant a change in car design.
Ms. Hubele, a former statistics professor at Arizona State University, has been an expert witness in over 120 automobile safety cases. She uses these real-life, tragic stories to frame her book’s debates.
“With car safety, it’s the value we place on every human life that counts,” Ms. Hubele said in a prepared statement. “But all too often that value has been eclipsed by greed and bureaucracy.”
“Backseat Driver” looks at how car manufacturers, safety advocates, and lawmakers have clashed for decades over whether to make vehicles safer. Mr. Hubele says she delves into safety controversies such as whether to issue a recall, arguments about gender inequality in vehicle testing and design, the impact of the growing gap in vehicle size and the rollout of automated driver-assistance systems.
Each side argues that the data supports their opinion.
To create the future of self-driving cars, data are moving into the front seat. But when will these robots assume control of our streets? Ms. Hubele analyzes industry claims that computer-driven vehicles will save lives, as well as many new issues detractors are raising to hit the brakes.
With nearly 70 artist illustrations, “Backseat Driver” paints an exciting and easy-to-understand narrative for readers of any background. In addition to her new book, Hubele created the first-ever, consumer car safety rating system using real crash data called Auto Grades.
Applying an easy-to-understand ranking from A (the best protection) to F (the worst protection), the safety rating system gives consumers the power to make real comparisons.
Auto Grades offer a reliable and more personalized car safety rating than the laboratory-based systems analyzed in “Backseat Driver,” thanks in part to the specifications for gender and age. Never before has a safety rating system ranked cars separately for women versus men, young versus old. Because not all people are protected equally in all cars. Auto Grades tell the real story.
