I see two problems with the proposed alarm system. First, the most common reason for accidental carbon monoxide intrusion into the passenger compartment is poor maintenance on an older vehicle. The exhaust system needs to be compromised somewhere under the vehicle and there typically need to be holes in the floor boards letting the carbon monoxide enter. Rust is the most common culprit, but it can also be other types of damage. If a car has been allowed to deteriorate to this point, would a carbon monoxide alarm system still be functioning properly? The sensors would likely need regular maintenance or replacement. It seems possible that many of the detection systems would no longer be operating properly by the time a vehicle is old enough for the risk to have increased.
Second, the number of vehicles on the road is high enough that even a small number of false-positives would completely outweigh the number of real alarms. There are 300,000,000 vehicles in the United States. If only 0.01% experience a false failure, that is still 30,000 false failures. What happens if a driver is going down the highway when the alarm goes off? It wouldn't take many drivers panicking before accidental deaths due to reactions to false failures exceeded the number of potential lives saved from real alarms. Even if the system just automatically rolls down a window, some drivers may not recognize that this is the alarm response. They may become fixated on trying to get the window to close again without noticing that traffic ahead of them has stopped. In some locations in the United States, there is a mandatory safety inspection to renew your car's registration. I'm not stating one way or another whether this is a good option. However, these inspections do look for exhaust leaks, faulty brakes and other safety issues. I lived in Missouri for 20 years and I found the inspections to be a hassle. At the time, I saw a lot of cars on the road that didn't look safe to me and I thought that the inspections were probably ineffective. I moved to Washington 9 years ago and I quickly learned I was mistaken. In Washington, I am amazed by the number of cars I see on the road with faulty headlights, broken taillights and even no brake lights. Those are just the visible safety issues. I can't tell how many have faulty exhaust systems that leak carbon monoxide into the passenger cabin. Ted Eckert Microsoft Corporation The opinions expressed are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer. -----Original Message----- From: Brian O'Connell [mailto:oconne...@tamuracorp.com] Sent: Thursday, February 16, 2017 12:07 PM To: EMC-PSTC@LISTSERV.IEEE.ORG Subject: Re: [PSES] Carbon Monoxide - Death Value Autonomously-controlled windows could be a significant hazard for some of the ‘normal’ operating conditions per NHTSA. A guestimate based on two previous submittals to VCA and other such bodies exceeds $80 USD per vehicle. Brian From: Nyffenegger, Dave [mailto:dave.nyffeneg...@bhemail.com] Sent: Thursday, February 16, 2017 11:50 AM To: EMC-PSTC@LISTSERV.IEEE.ORG Subject: Re: [PSES] Carbon Monoxide - Death Value Shutting down automatically while driving would not be good. Just lower all the windows automatically. From: IBM Ken [mailto:ibm...@gmail.com] Sent: Thursday, February 16, 2017 2:38 PM To: EMC-PSTC@LISTSERV.IEEE.ORG Subject: Re: [PSES] Carbon Monoxide - Death Value Hi Bob- do you know what percentage of the 300 are accidental vs intentional? Maybe instead of just alerting, the car should shut down upon reaching some measured CO limit. On Thu, Feb 16, 2017 at 2:29 PM, Robert Johnson <john...@itesafety.com> wrote: In the US we sell about 15 million cars/yr and have about 300 deaths/yr from automotive carbon monoxide. Since DC power is available, the horn is available, packaging is not needed, installation can be integrated in the auto manufacturing, I estimate an auto CO detector would cost below $10/car, about what a household one does. It would cost $500,000/death to install CO detectors in cars. Is this a reasonable expenditure to mandate? Bob Johnson - ---------------------------------------------------------------- This message is from the IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society emc-pstc discussion list. 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