[Quietcars] Passenger defeatable systems.

[michael townsend]

David, as a car nut, and I'll leave my love of cars at that, I've never
driven, though I know the mechanics of it.  I've never owned a car, though
I've worked on friends' cars as a hobby and as a very high interest.  

As a person who understands such things as defeatable systems, i.e., the
flawed attempts of the auto industry who made seatbelts able to be gotten
around by consumers in the 1970s, I know about which you speak to this point
of "defeatable" systems.  

I remember that weight on a seat triggered a buzzer, and a rather annoying
one at that, in most American cars, which, if one looked for a wire harness
underneath the seat, one could "defeat that system" in seconds.  A simple
coupler was used and if you pinched a fastener and pulled it out of a female
holder,  you had no more seatbelt warning system.  

Some more expensive models coupled the seatbelt activation systems to the
ignition, and they could be gotten around as well, though with a bit more
difficulty.

I think that any warning system should be audible, activated with
nondefeatable sensors at the four corners of the car, and there should be a
pleasant, yet discernable tone that would not be mistaken for anything else,
and that this same warning system and tone should be mandated across the
board.  

I'm saying that BMW, Mercedes and GM, as well as the Japanese counterparts
should use the same system, so that one wouldn't have to confuse a warning
sound with another street sound, or have to define a Toyota from a Volvo
from a Chevy.  

So far, I don't think that this has been proposed, and correct me if I'm
wrong on this.  And, this may be the downfall of the proposed legislative
effort.  This is a really great cause, but things like this have a way of
blocking things from passage.  

You see, we can't get senators and congress to agree on spending bills, Wall
Street reform or even proposed standards as they relate to service or guide
animals.  

I applaud the efforts of each blindness org and automotive group who's
fought for such legislation, but the hard part is just getting  started. 

And, congress and the senate have to remove themselves and their selfish,
political needs and wants from the needs ad wants of the average Joe or
Jill; something which I am afraid that neither party has been willing to so
accomplish, regardless of whose administration has been in office!

Mike 
T


"I am accustomed to hearing malicious falsehoods about myself...but I think
I have
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Mike Townsend and Seeing Eye dog Brent
Dunellen, New Jersey  08812
emails:  mrtownsend at optonline.net; 
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