Wouldn’t auto manufacturers’ voluntary improvements be a better fix to problems like rollover and vehicle incompatibility than government standards?
No. Automakers have long asked legislators and regulators to “trust them” to improve safety. This was an argument Congress specifically considered and rejected when it enacted the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act in 1966, the Act giving rise to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the agency that sets auto safety standards. Laws and regulations are the only proven method of meaningfully increasing the safety of the American highway. The historical path of automakers’ voluntary efforts is paved with broken promises.
