Auto

Australia needs to improve lax fuel efficiency standards after the Volkswagen emissions scandal, reports The Guardian, or face the prospect of becoming a dumping ground for high-emissions vehicles, advocates have warned. Pressure is mounting on the federal government to tighten legislation governing vehicle emissions standards. Australia is the only advanced economy not to have limits on the amount of carbon dioxide vehicles can emit.

A new analysis by Doug Short at Advisor Perspectives shows that annual per capita rate of auto and light truck sales in the United States is down 28.1% from the high of August 1978. Does this spell long term trouble for the auto industry?

According to Automotive News, a six-year highway funding bill being considered by the U.S. Senate would provide a path for auto safety regulators to impose bigger fines on automakers that violate the law and take limited steps to address loopholes in the nation’s auto recall system, but it would stop short of some of the stricter measures sought by Democratic lawmakers.

Last week, plaintiffs suing G.M. asked a Federal District Court to find that the company and its lawyers engaged in criminal or fraudulent activity by covering up the defect, reports the New York Times. That, the plaintiffs say, allows the court to lift the veil of confidentiality over their communications. This request presents a significant threat that could reveal even more embarrassing information about how the automaker’s lawyers dealt with the defect.

Without Ralph Nader and his 1965 book Unsafe at Any Speed, the cars we drive today would be vastly different from the ones we take for granted. The Chicago Tribune interviews Ralph Nader on the book’s legacy.

A new report from the Democratic members of the Senate Commerce Committee finds that Takata, the manufacturer of defective airbags that have killed several users, was aware, or should have been aware, of serious safety and quality control lapses in its manufacturing plants as early as 2001.