MyCarDoesWhat Applauds NHTSA's Automated Vehicle Guidelines

ITASCA, Ill. and IOWA CITY, Iowa, Sept. 20, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The National Safety Council and University of Iowa, who partnered to create MyCarDoesWhat, applaud the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) for providing guidance to state policy leaders, automotive manufacturers and technology companies on the safe operation of automated vehicles.

The new voluntary guidelines are intended to help facilitate the deployment and testing of rapidly-emerging automation in vehicles.

More than nine in ten crashes each year are caused by driver error.

"Today's safety technologies will reduce the risk of crashes, deaths and injuries, and new automated vehicle technologies offer incredible safety promise, but we're not there yet," said Daniel McGehee, principal investigator of the MyCarDoesWhat National Vehicle Safety Campaign. "As these technologies continue to advance, it is critically important for drivers to understand what they are and how to use them. For now, you are still your car's best safety feature."

According to Alex Epstein, senior director, National Safety Council, "Creating policies for how these technologies can be used and tested, and even what we call them, is critical to keeping our roads safe."

The National Safety Council and the University of Iowa partnered in 2015 to launch MyCarDoesWhat to educate the public on how to best interact with vehicle safety features to have better, safer driving experiences.

The campaign's website, MyCarDoesWhat.org, includes educational videos and other information about a variety of safety technologies, including back-up cameras, blind-spot monitoring systems, forward-collision warning and other collision-avoidance systems that help drivers.

For more information, visit MyCarDoesWhat.org and follow MyCarDoesWhat on Twitter and Facebook.

About the National Safety Council
Founded in 1913 and chartered by Congress, the National Safety Council, nsc.org, is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to save lives by preventing injuries and deaths at work, in homes and communities, and on the road through leadership, research, education and advocacy. NSC advances this mission by partnering with businesses, government agencies, elected officials and the public in areas where we can make the most impact – distracted driving, teen driving, workplace safety, prescription drug overdoses and Safe Communities.

About the University of Iowa
The Transportation & Vehicle Safety Research Program at the University of Iowa works to improve technology design through a better understanding of how drivers perform and behave in crash situations. Their research-driven program works at the intersection of safety technology and public policy. The program's areas of research include: human factors and human behavior, advanced in-vehicle safety technologies, driver distraction, teen driving, crash analysis and automated vehicle policy.

SOURCE MyCarDoesWhat

CONTACT: National Safety Council: Maureen Vogel, (630) 775-2226; University of Iowa: Hayley Bruce, (319) 384-0072; MSL GROUP: Lisa Gill, (248) 458-8622