An engineer friend once told me that if all cars were made to the same rigorous standards as Rolls-Royce airplane engines, then they would last for over 20 years and 200,000 miles. They would cost more than $250,000 each and it would be a very difficult business to be in. If cars were made to NASA standards, then they would last much longer and cost $1,000,000. That may have been an exaggeration, but the point is that all things are crafted to the extent that convenience, affordability, and the market will allow. To require automakers to meet a standard that is so expensive to provide would eliminate private cars for most people.
- Does it worry you to know that cars are made to a less than perfect standard?
- What is the acceptable risk we allow the company to take with our lives?
- As a company leader, what level of risk do you allow people to take with your customers?
- What level of risk do we expose employees to? Do they know that? (Utah mine disaster...)
If you asked parents what driving qualifications bus drivers should have to have, they would probably require fairly tough standards. Yet, they drive their children in vehicles that are not as safe, with less training, and often in more severely impaired conditions - but that is fine with them, Why? 
Yesterday I asked: What if [an] automated reporting system was put in your car?
Today I would like you to consider that there are devices that could be installed in all vehicles that would not only test for alcohol, but for many kinds of acuity impairement. This one device, can test for drivers that would be impaired due to drowsiness, alcohol, drugs, illness, or even mental issues. Given the uproar over potentially dangerous lead, chemicals, and parts that might cause death over time, you would think more people would demand such a device in all vehicles. This certainly seems like a reasonable thing to have to provide greater safety on the road. The silence is deafening.
Right now there is a move to keep trucks from Mexico off of US roads. The argument is that they are unsafe. Maybe if all trucks had safety reporting devices, such as self-reporting monitors for speed, brake wear, tire tread, and maintenance it would not matter. Perhaps US trucks would fare no better and that would be a problem for some folks. The screams over unsafe goods from overseas should be just as load for the products made here, but they are not. The entire state of Michigan is not listed as a dangerous area when Ford puts a truck on the road that has an unsafe tire.
Are these safety devices or lawbreaking reporting devices inconvenient or do they take away our freedom? What freedom is lost?
- The freedom to break the rules
- The freedom to be cheap
- The freedom to operate in an unsafe manner
- The freedom from hassles
All cars could be equipped with biometric sensors. These sensors would not let any "unregistered" person operate the vehicle. How many joyriding kids would not be able to do so? How many lives would be saved? How many car jackings? With the impairement test that takes 30 seconds, how many lives would be saved. In time the device can be improved to check the drive repeatedly. How many sleepy drivers would be saved?
We talk about spending billions of dollars on drug development but we don't do anything about some of the top killers of young people in America - the use of illegal firearms. In this day and age of wireless sensors and reporting devices, every gun could have a biometric sensor and a reporting system to control who can use the gun and where it was used. If it is not being used in an inappropriate manner or location what is there to fear? If it could only be fired by someone that it is programmed to respond to, how many fewer accidental shootings would there be?
What level of risk is a human life worth?
As you make decisions about working conditions, employee monitoring, or product quality - keep this in mind: you get what you pay for, you improve what you measure, and the best customer is a customer that feels safe using your products.
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