In the United States, where having a car is all but mandatory for 92 percent of the population, ever-higher car prices are causing a lot of stress. The average cost of a new car in the US recently hit record heights, while repossessions for missed car payments are at a 15-year high.
Always on the lookout for their next sacrificial lamb, Republican lawmakers are now arguing that technology in cars is to blame. However, it isn’t the infotainment bloatware, wireless key-fobs, power seats, or over-the-air subscription services they’re blasting, but safety systems that the NHTSA says have saved 860,000 lives since 1968.
Yep, seriously. As the Wall Street Journal reports, Republicans are forming an inquisition chaired by senator Ted Cruz to attack federal laws mandating safety technology in new cars. These include proven, low-cost systems like automatic emergency braking (AEB) — which isn’t even slated to become mandatory until 2029 — and alarms to remind drivers not to forget their kids in the back seat.
Under Cruz’ direction, lawmakers have issued a summons for three executives of Detroit’s “Big Three” automakers, along with one Tesla exec, to “explain the rising costs of vehicles.” The meeting is sure to be a hissy fit of the highest order, because by and large, automotive tycoons are already in line with Republican priorities.
Earlier this year, a lobbying group sued the Department of Transportation on behalf of the auto industry over the coming requirements for AEB. The corporations argue that the regulations “would significantly increase costs,” even though many of them already put AEB in select car models willingly.
However, when it comes to rising costs, a broader look under the hood shows that lawmakers are barking up the wrong tree.
Practically speaking, technological gains in factory automation have enabled car makers to produce more than enough traditional cars to saturate the market. In an ideal world, auto giants would pass those savings onto the consumer; efficiency is supposed to drive costs down, after all. But that would cut into the auto industry’s profits — going against the logic that’s driven car companies from the very start.
Car seats are a great example of this. While seat design does have an impact on safety during car crashes, the industry has taken it to another level, turning chairs into “power seats” crammed with biometric sensors, ventilation ducts, encoders, and motors.
On their own, car seats are just another component. But stuffed full of high-tech comforts, they become a whole new industry — a $50 billion one as early as 2014 — that serves as a new avenue for profits for auto companies, and a new cost for car buyers.
While high tech systems are the latest example, this isn’t a new phenomenon. As labor reporter Joe Andrews wrote in 1942: “to resolve the problem of auto’s stagnation, and to find new fields for profit, the [Ford] corporation expanded into all sorts of subsidiary fields. It developed ethyl gasoline, on which it has a monopoly; it invested in Nylon, Frigidaires, appliances and gadgets of all kinds.”
It’s an excellent example of how capitalism left to its own devices will devolve into production for profit’s sake, instead of production for human needs. Point being, if Republicans were really worried about rising car prices, they’d crack down on the auto monopolies driving them up — not the safety regulations keeping Americans alive.
More on cars: Tesla Admits That Its Cars May Never Fully Drive Themselves
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