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| NHTSA Proposes Standard for Tyre Pressure Monitoring Devices.
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21/09/04 |
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The U.S. Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has announced proposals for a new safety standard to warn the driver when a tyre is significantly under-inflated. The announcement follows an extensive examination of the current generation of tyre pressure systems in the wake of the Ford/Firestone recall programme of 2000.
The new proposal requires manufacturers to install Tyre Pressure Monitoring Systems (TPMS) on all road wheels so as to be able to detect when a tyre is more than 25 percent under-inflated and automatically to warn the driver. The technology is expected to cost around $(US)70 to fit to each vehicle but will result in an estimated saving of $(US)1.7 billion in reduced fuel consumption and maintenance costs says the NHTSA.
The new standard also proposes to add a TPMS malfunction indicator to the requirements, which would warn the driver when the system is not working properly, as when a vehicle is fitted with a tyre incompatible with the warning system or the system fails to function for some other reason. Only about one in ten vehicles in the US are presently fitted with a tyre warning system.
"Operating a vehicle with substantially under-inflated tires can result in a tyre failure, such as instances of tread separation and blowouts, with the potential for a loss of control of the vehicle," says the NHTSA. "Under-inflated tyres also shorten tyre life and increase fuel consumption.
The new Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard would apply to passenger cars, trucks, multipurpose passenger vehicles, and buses with a gross vehicle weight rating of 10,000 pounds or less, except those vehicles with dual wheels on an axle. The document proposes a three-year phase-in schedule that would see the system being fitted to increasing numbers of new vehicles. All new cars sold after 1st September 2007 would be expected to comply. In a bizarre twist however, replacement tyres subsequently fitted to vehicles, will not be required to work with the TPMS. The reason, apparently, is that replacement tyres are too wide ranging and too customised for automakers to track.
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Further information, contact:
Rae Tyson of the NHTSA, Telephone: #1 202 366-9550
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