NHTSA inks agreement with China on auto safety

It's a banner day for car safety advocates around the world -- or at least, wherever Chinese cars are sold. The National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration (NHTSA) and China last week signed a Memorandum of Cooperation (MOC) that formalizes a relationship intended to make Chinese cars safer. The deal has probably been in the works well before the Chery and Brilliance implosion crash test videos, but those videos couldn't have hurt China's commitment to sitting down.

The MOC outlines goals for creating safety standards and enforcing them, informing consumers, sharing research, improving fuel economy, and handling safety investigations and recalls. The two sides will sit down at least once a year, and they will also conduct joint research into automobile issues that will make Chinese cars -- and the roads they'll be on -- safer for everyone. We see this as a very positive thing for China's relatively nascent auto industry and its aspirations for global export. It the day ever comes where Chines-built cars are on the shelves in the U.S., it will be comforting to know they were designed using the same safety standards as the NHTSA.

Thanks for the tip, David!

[Source: NHTSA]