Welcome to The Morning Dump, bite-sized stories corralled into a single article for your morning perusal. If your morning coffee’s working a little too well, pull up a throne and have a gander at the best of the rest of yesterday.
South Australia Plans Special License For Performance Cars
The Australian state of South Australia is zeroing in on performance car owners with new road safety regulations. ABC News Australia reports that South Australia Premier Peter Malinauskas and his government are planning several reforms that include implementing a dedicated license for powerful cars in the aim of preventing further pedestrian deaths. These proposals come in the wake of a high-profile pedestrian fatality where a driver in a Lamborghini Huracan failed to maintain control of their vehicle and mounted the sidewalk, fatally colliding with a 15-year-old pedestrian. Due to a combination of factors including the driver traveling below the posted speed limit at the time of the collision, the driver was acquitted of death by dangerous driving. That reform includes establishing a licensing scheme for drivers of high-powered vehicles, similar to motorcycle and truck licences. The licensing scheme would be retrospective, and Mr Malinauskas anticipated a “degree of resistance” from existing car owners. “I believe it’s the right thing to do, I think most of the community think it’s the right thing to do,” he said. The government will also strengthen laws to ban drivers accused of killing someone from holding a license until their case is resolved, and ban the disabling of traction control in high-powered vehicles. The tragedy at the heart of these proposed reforms was very clearly caused by one driver’s poor judgement. While I strongly agree that some reforms are needed to properly penalize those responsible for road fatalities, I’m a bit conflicted about the proposed reforms we’re seeing here. On the one hand, higher license requirements for drivers are generally beneficial for road safety. Drivers improve through teaching and experience, so requiring more driver training to get a high-performance license should put safer drivers behind the wheel of performance cars. In addition, increased penalties for drivers facing criminal charges relating to fatal collisions promise to be formidable sticks. On the other, “high-powered vehicles” is unacceptably vague and a retrospective license scheme seems a bit punitive given graduated licensing precedents. “I think the verdict really highlighted the fact that, in most South Australians’ minds, justice hasn’t been done here,” he said. “And where justice isn’t done, or isn’t seen to be done, that raises the question of the need for law reform and that’s certainly what happened and I want to respond quickly.” Oh, and a ban on disabling traction control just seems like a basic lack of understanding. Many performance cars from Hyundai’s N models to newer BMWs relax traction and stability control a touch in their sportiest road drive modes, and there are still many older performance cars around that simply don’t have traction control. Plus, traction control systems don’t override the laws of physics. It’s entirely up to the driver to rein in their throttle control regardless of the presence of traction control.
Kia Telluride And Hyundai Palisade Recalled For Risk Of Fire
Anyone who lived through Ford’s infamous cruise control switch recall will feel a degree of familiarity with this new recall affecting select Kia Telluride and Hyundai Palisade crossovers. Owners of affected vehicles should park outside far away from anything like buildings and other vehicles because their crossovers could self-immolate while parked. Let’s take a look at the NHTSA recall reports and get to the bottom of this issue. The issue stems from four-pin trailer hitch wiring harness that, due to the way it was sold/installed, makes pinning down affected vehicles an absolute nightmare. The four-pin harness was a port-installed option on 2020 Tellurides, but it was also sold as a dealer-installed accessory for both the Kia Telluride and its Hyundai Palisade sibling. Vehicles with seven-pin harnesses aren’t affected. The NHTSA recall report to the Telluride points to the four-pin harness’ module as the culprit. A PCB prone to shorting is concerning given the exposed nature of trailer harness modules. Contaminants should have been considered during the design process. Also, there might be something seriously wrong with me because I was unusually amused by NHTSA’s safety risk description, which is simply “A fire increases risk of injury.” No kidding, NHTSA. Hyundai and Kia are currently working on a fix, so owners can’t do much at the moment but park away from things and carry a fire extinguisher should they need to use their vehicles. Here’s to hoping this resolves soon, because car fires really aren’t fun to deal with.
Former Apple Engineer Pleads Guilty To Stealing Autonomous Car Secrets
If you’re leaving a secretive program at a hugely important company, it’s best to not take anything from the program with you. Reuters reports that a former Apple engineer has pled guilty to stealing trade secrets from Apple’s automotive program. While it has been previously reported by Bloomberg that Apple was working on autonomous vehicle technology, this trade secret case offers a firm timeline of just how long Apple has been working on this tech. Apple reportedly intends to launch some form of autonomous vehicle solution in 2025, although that seems like a rather ambitious timeline considering we’re only just now getting to Level 3 autonomy in the wider automotive industry. He was arrested at the San Jose airport after he passed through a security checkpoint. Xpeng, the Chinese electric car maker Zhang joined after leaving Apple in 2018, said on its Twitter-like Sina Weibo account on Tuesday that the company had no dispute with Apple over the issue and that it was not involved in Zhang’s case in any form.
Honda Is Reportedly Considering Reducing Reliance On China
With global automotive supply chains in a state of disarray, it’s time for automaker to reconsider their supply chain management strategies. Reuters reports that Honda is considering reducing supply chain reliance on China, either in a major way or in a more nuanced manner. A separate supply chain sounds like a radical rethink for Honda. However, it might not happen as Sankei describes. Reuters reached out to Honda and got this comment. If supply chain management changes do get put in place, it sounds like Honda could be better prepared for future shutdowns occurring further down the supply chain. In any case, Honda certainly wouldn’t be the first automaker to reconsider reliance on China for components. Reuters reports that Mazda is using a combination of stockpiling and diversification to avoid future interruptions. “The review of the supply chain from China and risk hedging are elements that need to be considered, but it is not quite the same as the objective of decoupling,” the spokesperson said.
The Flush
Whelp, time to drop the lid on today’s edition of The Morning Dump. Happy Wednesday, everyone, we’re officially halfway through the week. The middle of the week calls for a middle-related question, and I’m wondering how many of you miss bench front seats in passenger cars. While the front bench in my Ford Crown Victoria offered all the lateral support of a barstool, it was nice being able to slide in from the curb side and really stretch out on long trips.
Lead photo credit: BMW
However the special licenses should be for vehicles with reduced capabilities or other unusual qualities.
Heavy vehicle with longer stopping distance (Like half-ton or larger pickups, and any SUV named after some superlatively large object)? You should need to prove you know how to handle it.
Towing ANYTHING?
External cargo?
Excess blind spots?
All these things should need training. If we can require a motorcycle endorsement so people don’t kill themselves it seems reasonable to make people prove they won’t kill other people.
If you want to drive a car that handles extremely well, and stops quickly….. you should get to drive extra fast. Seems reasonable.
Nuff said.
Fashion Nugget is a classic
Speed limits were largely set when cars had drum brakes, bias ply tires, and lap belts. The fact our speed limits have barely changed in decades is just ridiculous, even economy cars today can comfortably cruise at 100+ for hours without issue.
Honestly sometimes I wonder why I’m even into cars at all; the police around here are nazis, I got a $400+ ticket for going 70mph in the middle of nowhere a while ago, speed limit was 55. Officer tries telling me how going that fast is dangerous…. bro I have Z rated tires, wider than stock, upgraded rotors/pads/lines, and I’m paying attention unlike the Karens in crossovers. Since he was acting like a tax collector with a badge, I decided to waste his time and told him all about the speed limit paradox in Montana, and how the deathrate PLUMMETED to an all time low when they didn’t have a speed limit.
This was the opposite of what everyone thought would happen, common sense says more speed = more death, but the exact opposite happened because people were driving faster, and as fast as they felt ‘comfortable’. This meant they were paying attention…. and honestly at 55mph I am bored out of my mind. I don’t know why I like fast cars, I don’t get to use them. Cops harass you if you go 10 over the limit here, cost you tons of money, and wreck your insurance costs. All so they can afford more tacticool gear and idle their giant SUVs all over the place while they buy donuts at Kwik Trip.
/ rant
I live in a country where cops are anti-speed nazis and politicians love the ticketing tax.It’s infuriating!
I would bet if you have a bubbly exhaust and fat tires, the police just had a hard on to pull you over.
I’m curious about the enforcement of such a law? What happens if you get caught driving a vehicle w/o said endorsement?
Despite this I’m in favour in principal but the devil will no doubt be in the detail of what is proposed.
As a hypotheical set of rules, you know what’s a 2 door vehicle without traction control and more than 300 horsepower? My truck. Know what’s not a performance vehicle? Same.
This has excellent grounds for hilarity, given the ballooning HP numbers on even the most mundane family haulers of late.
We have a local tracker of vehicles that run into buildings, which is frequently a similar low-speed out-of-control situation as described here. It is not a high performance car problem.
And yes, obviously do not go faster in suburban/residential areas….
If they won’t let you drive a fast car slow without a special license, why do you think they’ll let you drive anything fast?
Which leads to the discussion offered by ADDvanced: by offering privileges. Note that the death in the story was not due to high speed, and most deaths, especially pedestrian deaths, are not. So, I would gladly take additional driving training, and pay more for a license, thereby increasing safety overall (especially around town and to pedestrians), if that extra ability was recognized by allowing me to drive faster on the interstate. I would even be for vehicle safety inspection requirements (which my state doesn’t have) if it meant I could drive faster on the highway.
But that requires version of a law would require nuance and understanding. Something the electorate won’t abide!
But that version of a law would require nuance and understanding. Something the electorate won’t abide!
Perhaps they could require a CDL for anything over 4 tons or 5 tons or whatever can be agreed on.
My girlfriend at the time (now wife) used to sit cross-legged on the front bench facing me when we took the ’67 deVille I had at the time on longer trips. Of course, she did lock the door behind her – safety first! To be fair, she’s from Brazil – her stories of piling five or six people into a Fusca (air-cooled Beetle) and venturing out onto the highways for a few hours of vehicular near-misses, breakdowns, and other assorted mayhem puts “safety” into perspective.
It was normally one used for limos designs but never stretched. I drove the same year with the center console and felt cramped in a large car.
While I can’t say I’ve ever missed them, I will certainly never forget the many late night high school journeys in my friend’s old pickup truck with a bench seat and no seatbelts!
I’m all for freedom and whatnot but there’s certain stuff the average person just can’t be trusted with…and American car manufacturers are consistently fanning the flames by making it easier and easier to get into this stuff. If your credit exists and you have a pulse you can walk into a Dodge dealership right now and leave in a Hellcat or BIG FREEDOM RAM COMPENSATOR or whatever.
Less than high functioning people+big power=death. This stuff is all shockingly easy to drive too…it’s not like there’s a learning curve in modern high powered cars. Get in. Mash the throttle. Go. And I can assure you that as ludicrously powerful EVs become more and commonplace things will only get worse.
…that being said, it’s wishful thinking and nothing more.
Hilarious. Yes, I’m sure $80,000 cars are just being given out like candy. Step right up!
Plenty of overpowered offerings from other countries too, not sure why this is an American thing.
The American companies are well known for playing fast and loose with their financing…it’s one of the reasons why there are so damn many of these things on the road. In fact, I believe Ford (or maybe it’s another one of the Big 3) has specific financing for their trucks that offers longer term loans and broader credit approval.
Is it up slightly from pre-pandemic years? Yes. Is it still lower than we had ever achieved until the mid 2000s? Also yes.
If you have to rend yourself to such histrionics to support your point regardless whether data supports it, you belong in politics, not a reasonable discussion.
The fundamental problem is of people driving like bogans (look that word up, kids). The thinking is that faster vehicles are more difficult to control for your average bogan and therefore more dangerous to themselves and others. I buy that argument, but there are lots of things which make a vehicle dangerous. Statistically, the best vehicles for killing cyclists and pedestrians are those with high hoods, not high power-to-weight ratios.
And as others have pointed out, speeding is context-dependent. Going 15-over in a school zone is a far more dangerous activity than on the Montana-Canada border.
So a vehicle becomes more dangerous to others as a function not only of its power-to-weight ratio, but also its height, its speed, and the location where all those things are happening. So what does good legislation to address the root cause actually look like?
My argument is for a better policy that does the following:
(1) Designate all roads as belonging within three geographic classes: high-density (urban), medium-density (suburban), and low-density (rural). Create three different sets of speeding criteria depending on the road type. 5-over gets you a ticket in high-density zones, while it’s just a warning until you’re doing 15-over in a low-density area.
(2) Create a “pedestrian danger” class of vehicle based on a power-to-weight ratio greater than 8lbs/HP (that’s 500HP in a 2-ton vehicle) and/or 60″ hood height. This is a tiiiiiny fraction of vehicles. Create different plates for these vehicles and require a license endorsement to register one, similar to a motorcycle.
Thoughts?
