FAA: Software Upgrade Could Be Behind Technical Glitch That Snarled Hundreds Of Flights Over The Weekend

(kevindean)

If you had a terrible time trying to fly somewhere in the U.S. this past weekend, you’re not alone: hundreds of flights were delayed or canceled along the East Coast on Saturday before travel returned to a more normal pace on Sunday. The Federal Aviation Administration says the technical problem at a Virginia air traffic control center that caused the travel issues could be linked to a software upgrade at the facility.

On Sunday the agency said the travel nightmare was likely connected to a software upgrade at one of its Leesburg, VA traffic control centers. The FAA has disabled the features that were included in the upgrade, the Wall Street Journal reports, calling the disruption an “automation failure.”

The difficulties on Saturday prompted the FAA to restrict flights in the area served by that center from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. All told, the FAA says there were about 492 delays and 476 cancellations related to the technical problem, notes the Associated Press. That amounts to about 70% of normal Saturday air traffic at the Baltimore-Washington International Airport, 72% at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and 88% at Dulles International Airport, notes the Associated Press.

The big airlines said on Sunday that most or all of their passengers had been rebooked on new flights. American Airlines was hit particularly hard, with 245 cancellations. United Airlines had 70.

FAA Software Upgrade Fails, Triggering Travel Nightmare [Wall Street Journal]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Google Can Now Show You The Best Time To Pick Up Your Dry Cleaning

Waiting in line is often an annoying, but unavoidable aspect of everyday life: grabbing lunch, picking up a prescription, cashing a check, just to name a few. Now instead of just telling you how much time it will take to drive from one place to the other, Google has used its skills (all that data it collects) to create a new feature that gives a little more insight on just how busy the coffee shop is at 8 a.m. (busy).

The new mobile search feature, unveiled in a Google+ post today, aims to help consumers save time by showing them the busiest times of day at millions of businesses around the world.

To utilize the feature – which doesn’t really have a name – people just enter the business they’re looking for in Google’s search box. The generated results will now not only include the store’s phone number, address, and hours, but also a scrollable bar graph that shows the fluctuations of foot-traffic for all days of the week at the location.

The example provided by Google in its announcement shows the changing traffic at a local coffee shop. The resulting graph depicts the busiest hours of day at the location, but doesn’t explicitly tell you how long you should expect to wait.

While it’s likely that this new feature will be helpful when trying to determine when might be the best time to sneak out of the office for lunch or head to the post office, the results aren’t foolproof.

Don’t count on using the information to see when that amazing hole-in-the-wall store is busy, as a spokesperson for Google tells TechCrunch that results generally only appear for places where users are “commonly curious about how busy it typically gets.”

[via TechCrunch]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Self-Driving Cars From Rival Companies Have A Close Call In California Traffic

(Google)

Just yesterday, Google’s latest self-driving car models hit the streets of Mountain View, CA. But there have already been some bumps in the road, as a new report says a self-driving Google car had a near miss in traffic with another driverless vehicle this week.

An executive with Delphi Automotive PLC told Reuters that he was a passenger in a self-driving prototype from his company on Tuesday, when a Google driverless vehicle cut it off on the road. No contact was made between the two cars.

The director of Delphi’s Silicon Valley lab and global business director for the company’s automated driving program said he was in a prototype Audi Q5 crossover vehicle equipped with lasers, radar, cameras and special computer software, with a person at the wheel as backup. While the car was preparing to change lanes, he says a Google prototype — a Lexus RX400h crossover with similar technology — cut off the Audi, prompting it to cancel the lane change.

He says the Delphi car “took appropriate action.”

Google declined to comment.

This is likely the first such incident to have been reported between two self-driving cars, though Google issued a complete list of all incidents its driverless vehicles have gotten into with cars piloted by people since the company started testing the cars on the open road. In all of those collisions, the self-driving car was not at fault.

Two rival self-driving cars have close call in California [Reuters]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Exploding Airbag In Volkswagen Under Investigation

(Sarah)

For the past year, federal regulators have been investigating shrapnel-shooting airbags, linked to at least eight deaths and hundreds of injuries. These devices, made by Takata, are used by 11 different automakers, but until this week, Volkswagen had not been part of the investigation.

Yesterday, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration revealed it was investigating a June 2015 rupture of a  Takata airbag in a 2015 Volkswagen Tiguan in Missouri. NHTSA has issued special orders to both companies, seeking information related to the incident.

According to NHTSA’s order [PDF], Volkswagen notified regulators of the rupture of a Takata airbag inflator on July 15, more than a month after the incident took place.

A spokesperson for VW tells the Detroit News that the rupture occurred after the vehicle hit a deer. The driver did not file a police report and did not seek medical attention.

NHTSA says information from VW and Takata – who have until Aug. 24 to comply with the orders – could help identify a cause for the June incident, which doesn’t fit the previous pattern of airbag ruptures linked to Takata safety devices.

For the most part, the previous ruptures have often occurred in older vehicles and in areas of high humidity, such as Florida, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Hawaii, Texas, Louisiana, Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama and Mississippi.

Among the information NHTSA is seeking from the automaker and Japanese parts supplier includes a list of all models that have airbags with ammonium nitrate, from any auto supplier

The agency also asked for police reports and records related to the rupture and information on whether other VW vehicles have suffered ruptures.

Mark Gillies, a VW spokesperson, tells the Detroit News that the automaker is working to investigate the June incident with Takata.

Gillies say he was unaware of how many of the automaker’s vehicles are equipped with Takata airbags and had “no comment” on why VW airbags are not part of the wider Takata recall.

The company Tweeted back in May that while it uses Takata airbags, “the parts on our VWs are not part of the current recall.”

For its part, Takata says it doesn’t believe the most recent incident is related to the wider 33.8 million vehicle recall for defective airbags.

“While we are still investigating the cause of this malfunction, we believe it is unrelated to the previous recalls, which the extensive data suggests were a result of aging and long-term exposure to heat and high humidity,” Jared Levy, Takata spokesperson says. “We are cooperating closely with NHTSA and the vehicle manufacturer.”

Recalls of vehicles with Takata-produced airbags began slowly in 2008, but gained traction over the last year, culminating in the recall of 33.8 million vehicles in May.

The company and a plethora of investigators from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, as well as the 10 automakers affected by the recall have yet to identify what causes Takata’s airbags to rupture so violently. Because of this, it’s unclear whether or not vehicles already repaired are actually safe.

In fact, company also plans to re-recall about 400,000 vehicles that have already been repaired.

Takata announced it would change its use of the often volatile chemical ammonium nitrate in its safety devices and replace its batwing driver inflators.

U.S. investigates VW for ruptured Takata air bag [The Detroit News]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Netflix Is Totally In Favor Of Charter’s Plan To Buy TWC Because It Will Save Them Some Money

Netflix is almost 37% of all prime-time internet traffic. ISPs have been known to degrade that traffic until Netflix pays for peering. Netflix really hates having to make (and pay for) those agreements. And so Charter has quickly learned that the quickest way to Netflix’s heart is to promise not to do that.

Netflix pledged their support for the merger in a filing with the FCC today, after Charter made their pledge in the same way. Bloomberg spotted the filings.

In one document, Charter promised to maintain its policy of not charging for peering connections through the end of 2018. In a different but perfectly timed separate document, Netflix told the FCC that Charter’s peering policy makes the merger plan in the public interest.

“Charter’s new peering policy is a welcome and significant departure from the efforts of some ISPs to collect access tolls on the internet,” Netflix writes. “Netflix believes that this new policy and the commitment to apply it across the ‘New Charter’ footprint is a substantial public interest benefit … Accordingly, Netflix supports the proposed Charter-Time Warner Cable transaction.”

Netflix reached a paid peering agreement with Time Warner Cable about a year ago, sometime in the summer of 2014. The streaming video juggernaut also pays Comcast, AT&T, and Verizon for direct access to those ISPs’ customers.

If Comcast had succeeded in its bid to buy TWC, not only would Netflix have had to keep paying up, but also Comcast would have had such nationwide leverage that the price tag on that agreement could have gone up considerably. And indeed, Netflix strenuously opposed that merger, with CEO Reed Hastings at one point saying that Comcast was out to control the whole internet.

Of course, that plan did not work, clearing the way for Charter to try to succeed where Comcast failed.

The FCC has opened a docket on its review of Charter’s merger plans, but has not yet set a pleading cycle for public comment.

Netflix to Support Charter Acquisition of Time Warner Cable [Bloomberg News]

by Kate Cox via Consumerist

Uber Pushing Back On New York City’s Plans To Put Limits On Ride-Sharing Fleet Expansion

Uber’s campaign against Mayor Bill de Blasio has spread to its ride-hailing app.

In Uber’s quest to take over the world, expansion is key — the more drivers it has on the roads picking up passengers, the better its business will do. But in New York City, the company will have to fight to grow its fleet as local authorities consider putting limits on just how many for-hire vehicles will be cruising the streets.

City officials could vote as early as next week to limit increases in what’s called new for-hire vehicles (FHV), reports the AFP, as soon as a study on their impact on traffic comes out.

Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration could put limitations of just 1% increase in FHVs per year for companies with more than 500 vehicles, and 5% on those that have between 20 and 499 vehicles.

“What is good for Uber may not be good for New York City,” city hall spokesman Wiley Norvell said, noting that there are currently more than 20,000 Uber vehicles in the city, compared to 13,857 yellow cabs.

Every month there are 2,000 new permits granted for FHVs, of which Uber cars are just a part. Average traffic speed has gone down about 9% between 2010 and 2014, reports say, and city hall says NYC’s streets just might not be able to handle a “tide of new vehicles.”

Uber is fighting back with a campaign to sway customers to its side, sending out emails and petitions as well as airing TV ads accusing the mayor of “pushing the agenda of his big taxi donors.” City hall has called the campaign “misleading.”

The ride-sharing service also added a “de Blasio tab” to its app to show users how much longer they’d have to wait for a ride if the bill putting limits on FHV expansion wins approval.

“New York overall would not see a reduction in congestion from capping for-hire vehicles using Uber, but instead would halt progress made through technological innovation over the past years,” the company said. “Uber technology has helped expand service to those who were previously underserved.”

Uber locks horns with New York city hall over plans to limit fleet expansion [AFP]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

The First Complaint Of Net Neutrality Violation Is In, And It’s Against Time Warner Cable

(Photo Nut 2011)

Net neutrality only went into effect last Friday, but the first formal complaint against an ISP for breaking the rule is already on its way. The target? Time Warner Cable.

The complaint comes from a video streaming service in San Diego, the Washington Post reports.

Commercial Network Services (CNS) operates a number of webcams on the west coast. They live-stream events like the Fourth of July fireworks, and have a large following who like to watch the comings and goings of U.S. Navy vessels in San Diego. And according to CNS, Time Warner Cable is asking them to pay up or else viewers will get degraded service.

CNS chief executive Barry Bahrami told the WaPo, “This is not traffic we’re pushing to Time Warner; this is traffic that their paying Internet access subscribers are asking for from us.” He said that TWC’s actions are a “blatant violation” of the Open Internet Rule and that his company will be formally filing a complaint “in the next couple days, tops.”

TWC says it’s a peering dispute — basically, the same problem Netflix has run into. CNS doesn’t meet the criteria for a settlement-free peering deal (one in which no cash changes hands), they say.

In a statement to the Post, Time Warner Cable representatives said, “TWC’s interconnection practices are not only ‘just and reasonable’ as required by the FCC, but consistent with the practices of all major ISPs and well-established industry standards.”

The company added, “We are confident that the FCC will reject any complaint that is premised on the notion that every edge provider around the globe is entitled to enter into a settlement-free peering arrangement.”

Time Warner Cable will be the first to get hit with a net neutrality complaint [Washington Post]

by Kate Cox via Consumerist

Leaked NSA Documents: AT&T “Highly Collaborative” With NSA Spying, Has “Extreme Willingness” To Help

(Mike Mozart)

The NSA’s spying operations on regular Americans are the unwanted, terrible gift that just keeps on giving. Although most telecom and internet companies have cooperated with the surveillance efforts to one degree or another, at least some of them have the decency to act mildly chagrined about it. But not AT&T.

The New York Times and Pro Publica have jointly reported on newly confirmed findings from leaked NSA documents. While the NSA’s bulk, wide-reaching phone data collection program has gained the most notoriety and pushback, it’s not just phone data that big telecom companies are collecting. It’s internet traffic, too.

AT&T has been generally unrepentant in the past about how it handles law enforcement requests for consumers’ data. And perhaps the reason the inheritor of Ma Bell didn’t want to talk about its work with the NSA is because it likes that work a little too much.

Here are three key findings from the new trove of data.

1.) The documents don’t say, “Hey, this is AT&T,” but… it’s AT&T.
The files from the NSA consistently use the name “Fairview” for a single corporate partnership. But there are enough commonalities between Fairview and AT&T that it’s pretty clear just what business is being talked about. Apart from the main report, Pro Publica also ran a story explaining how they methodically used several points of evidence from the NSA to match AT&T to Fairview’s descriptions.

A second NSA/corporate partnership, Stormbrew, includes Verizon. However, AT&T’s work with the NSA has been considered “highly collaborative,” with AT&T displaying an “extreme willingness to help” above and beyond the cooperation from other telecom companies.

2.) This affects basically everyone, not just AT&T customers.
You don’t have to be (or be communicating with) an AT&T customer for your messages to be affected.

AT&T is one of a handful of backbone systems owners, known as Tier 1 providers, that provides the routes through which basically all internet traffic eventually flows. (Others based in the U.S. include Sprint, Verizon, Cogent, Level 3, and CenturyLink.) That means AT&T is selling, trading, or otherwise providing access over wires they own to all the ISPs you and I are using.

Meanwhile, the internet works by breaking up transmitted information into packets of data and zipping them around in pieces. It’s not as if an email goes directly, whole and untouched, from Sender A to Recipient B. Instead, it travels in chunks with lots of other messages, too. And so, as Pro Publica explains, that means taking a look at any one person’s stuff going over AT&T’s wires in practical, realistic terms actually means taking a look at lots of people’s stuff going over AT&T’s wires. As in, tens or possibly hundreds of millions of people.

3.) This has been going on for a long, long time.
The Fairview documents, as well as previously leaked items, show that AT&T began turning over data about emails to the NSA in October, 2001. By September, 2003 AT&T had become the “first partner to turn on a new collection capability that the NSA said amounted to ‘a live presence on the global net,'” the NYT and Pro Publica report. In one of the program’s first months up and running, the NSA received over 400 billion internet metadata records as well as over one million emails per day.

In 2006, an AT&T whistleblower leaked documents showing that AT&T had cooperated with the NSA to install devices that would allow surveillance on their fiber optic internet cables.

The EFF sued AT&T that same year for letting the NSA have warrantless access to internet records. Other related lawsuits were combined into a single proceeding, which was dismissed in 2009 after Congress retroactively made the program legal and granted telecom companies immunity for compliance.

However, the EFF filed another lawsuit in 2008, this time against the NSA directly, and that is the lawsuit the EFF hopes these newly-confirmed documents will bolster.

NSA Spying Relies on AT&T’s ‘Extreme Willingness to Help’ [Pro Publica]
AT&T Helped U.S. Spy on Internet on a Vast Scale [New York Times]

by Kate Cox via Consumerist

NYC Mayor Ditches Plan To Curb Uber Expansion In The City

(JLaw45)

It seems Uber will get its way in New York City after all: Though Mayor Bill de Blasio was pushing for limits on how much the ride-hailing service and other for-hire vehicle companies could expand their fleets, city hall is now backing down from that plan amid backlash from Uber, Governor Andrew Cuomo and some famous folks.

City hall dropped a proposal that would’ve curbed the growth of for-hire vehicles on the streets of the Big Apple. Uber has agreed to fork over data for a four-month study of the impact of cars on traffic congestion and the environment, reports Bloomberg News, and the city won’t cap its growth while that study is ongoing.

“These elements represent a smart and fair way to address the issues posed by the FHV industry in New York,” First Deputy Mayor Anthony Shorris said in a statement. “The City’s goals and obligations are clear — protect the public, encourage growth and innovation, and keep New York City moving.”

“This is great news for all New Yorkers, including Uber riders and drivers.”

Uber, of course, is pleased. The legislation would’ve put limitations of just a 1% increase in FHVs per year for companies with more than 500 vehicles, and 5% on those that have between 20 and 499 vehicles.

“Together, we can build an even better, more reliable transportation system,” an Uber spokesman said in a statement. “This is great news for all New Yorkers, including Uber riders and drivers.”

Mayor de Blasio was at odds with Gov. Cuomo — one of many quibbles the two have been having on a variety of topics — with Cuomo saying in a radio interview on Wednesday that the Uber measure wouldn’t have helped traffic and could have affected the rest of the state if Uber drivers left the city for neighboring counties.

“Uber is one of these great inventions, startups, of this new economy and it’s taking off like fire to dry grass and it’s giving people jobs,” Cuomo said. “I don’t think the government should be in the business of restricting job growth.”

Model Kate Upton and other celebrities also came out on the side of Uber, Tweeting disapproval of de Blasio’s plan out to their millions of followers.

Uber itself had launched a campaign against the measures this week with TV commercials and a “de Blasio” button in its app that showed how much longer passengers would have to wait for a ride if the proposal went through, and urged customers to write to the mayor and city council and voice their support for the company.

De Blasio Scraps Plan to Curb Uber’s New York City Growth After Backlash [Bloomberg]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Google Takes Self-Driving Prototypes To Texas For More Testing

(Mariordo/Wikipedia)

Google is taking its driverless car technology on the road: after unleashing a new generation self-driving prototypes on the streets near its California home recently, the company says there’s a new driverless vehicles that will be tooling around Austin, TX.

Though it’s unclear exactly what routes the driverless car will be roaming, Google says the vehicle will operate a few square miles north and northeast of downtown Austin. A modified Lexus SUV has already been spotted on city roads, reports the Austin American-Statesman, with safety drivers on board.

“We loved how much Austin embraces innovation,” Jennifer Haroon, head of business operations for Google’s self-driving unit, told the American-Statesman. “From technology to music to food. We feel like that matches the spirit of both Google and the self-driving car project.”

The cars are all equipped with special software and sensors to detect objects as far away as 200 yards in all directions. Such technology comes in handy when the cars need to avoid potential collisions or move based on what traffic is doing around them.

“It’s important for us to get experience testing our software in different driving environments, traffic patterns and road conditions — so we’re ready to take on Austin’s pedicabs, pickup trucks and everything in between,” Google said in a statement. “Keep it weird for us, Austin, and visit our website to let us know how we’re driving.”

Google tests driverless cars in Austin… with safety drivers [Austin American-Statesman]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Uber Testing Feature That Suggests Safe, Convenient Pickup Spots When Customers Request A Ride

(afagen)

While car service customers have the power to set their pickup location as precisely as they want to — either by entering a specific street address or dropping a pin on the mobile app’s map — that doesn’t mean it’s always a safe or easy place to get picked up, depending on traffic, or a place with space for a driver to wait. After some prodding, Uber will now implement a feature that recommends safe and convenient pickup spots when riders request a car.

TechCrunch’s Josh Constine wrote a post suggesting such a feature a few days ago, and it appears Uber was listening: The ride-hailing app is testing a “Suggested Pickup Points” that appear on a customer’s map as convenient or otherwise preferable spots for cars to arrive and wait for passengers. The hope here being that you won’t be tempted to dart across six lanes of traffic just to get to your waiting ride.

The testing so far is going on in San Francisco, with the feature explaining that passengers can “save time at these locations,” which are highlighted on the map of a customer’s location. It shows spots near the customer’s pin that would be quicker for the driver to pick them up, and allows users to then drag that pin to the suggested spot.

(via TechCrunch)

However that doesn’t take into account where your destination is — the app could ostensibly choose a spot that will require a driver to turn around or loop around the block to get going in the right direction.

Not all users are seeing the tests, which have appeared so far on iOS for uberPool, uberX, and Uber Black Car. We’ve reached out to Uber to ask for more information on the feature, and whether it’ll launch in other cities soon as well, and will update this post when we hear back.

Uber Is Now Testing “Suggested Pickup Points” [TechCrunch]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Takata Plans To Launch Airbag Recall Notification Campaign

Three months after Japanese auto parts maker Takata bowed to regulatory pressure and recalled 33.8 million vehicles equipped with shrapnel-shooting airbags responsible for at least eight deaths and hundreds of injuries, the company is launching an awareness campaign to ensure owners of affected vehicles are aware of the massive recall.

The Detroit News reports that Takata is working with Insurance Institute for Highway Safety to commence the campaign that includes national ads and direct mailings to millions of vehicle owners.

Takata announced its plans in a confidential memo to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration last month, noting that it plans to introduce a new website – http://ift.tt/1IYWKYQ – to encourage consumers to get their cars fixed under the “Get the Word Out” consumer outreach program.

The proposed ads – which would appear on Google, Facebook, Twitter, CNBC, the Wall Street Journal, CNN and Yahoo – include the message: “URGENT AIRBAG RECALL NOTICE: Does your airbag inflator need to be replaced?”

To begin with, the campaign will focus on areas of high humidity where airbags are thought to be at more risk for unexpectedly forceful deployments, including Florida, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Hawaii, Texas, Louisiana, Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama and Mississippi.

The parts maker says it will conduct real-time data analytics on the campaign and make changes to demographics and markets as needed.

As for the direct mailings, Takata says it will work with IIHS in “coordinating a mailing by insurers that would encourage affected policyholders to respond to the recalls.”

Before the campaigns can move forward, NHTSA must first approve the plan, the Detroit News reports.

A spokesperson for the agency said it was still reviewing the plans, as well as another confidential filing from Takata regarding steps to find the root cause of the airbag issue.

Recalls of vehicles with Takata-produced airbags began slowly in 2008, but gained traction over the last year, culminating in the recall of 33.8 million vehicles in May.

The company and a plethora of investigators from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, as well as the 10 automakers affected by the recall have yet to identify what causes Takata’s airbags to rupture so violently. Because of this, it’s unclear whether or not vehicles already repaired are actually safe.

In fact, company also plans to re-recall about 400,000 vehicles that have already been repaired.

Takata announced it would change its use of the often volatile chemical ammonium nitrate in its safety devices and replace its batwing driver inflators.

Takata to launch awareness campaign on air bag recalls [The Detroit News]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Honda Confirms Seventh Takata Airbag-Related Death Involved A Civic

(Jackie Vance-Kuss)

After a lawsuit filed last week claimed a seventh death was linked to the ongoing recall of defective Takata airbags in millions of vehicles from nearly a dozen manufactures, Honda confirmed over the weekend that the latest fatality did indeed occur in one of its automobiles.

The New York Times reports that Honda – which has been linked to the other six fatalities – confirmed over the weekend that a 22-year-old woman driving a 2005 Civic was fatally wounded by a ruptured airbag inflator following a collision in April 2015.

The car company says the vehicle was part of a “safety improvement campaign” initiated in June 2014. However, the car’s owner at the time didn’t receive a notification. So when it was sold to the Louisiana woman in October 2014, it hadn’t been repaired.

A safety notice from the manufacturer was sent to the new owner just three days before her death, the Times reports.

“Honda deeply regrets that mailed notification appears to have not reached [the owner] prior to her crash,” Chris Martin, a spokesman for the automaker, said in a statement.

The company said that mailed notifications first went to owners of recalled vehicles in areas with high humidity such as Florida, Hawaii and Puerto Rico back in September. Other areas – where ruptures were once thought to be less likely – including Louisiana, received notices later.

Martin tells the Times that the prioritization of notices was a result of the magnitude of the recall and a lack of available replacement parts.

The seventh death related to the defective Takata airbags was first revealed last week when the woman’s family filed a lawsuit against the Japanese auto parts maker and Honda.

According to the complaint [PDF], when the driver’s Honda Civic struck a utility pole, the Takata airbag didn’t deploy as it should but instead “violently exploded and sent metal shards, shrapnel and/or other foreign material into the passenger compartment.”

The plaintiffs say the driver sustained a penetrating injury to the right side of her neck, resulting in a loss of blood. The woman passed away four days later as a result of injuries sustained in the collision.

The lawsuit alleges that Takata has known about its exploding airbag problem as far back as 2001 – including performing secret tests of the safety devices. Additionally, the suit purports that Honda has been aware of the issue for more than a decade but failed to report some airbag-related incidents to that National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The regulator has since levied a record $35 million fine against the automaker.

“Since at least 2004, both the Honda Defendants and the Takata Defendants have had a growing and continuing awareness of the subject defect through consumer complaints, claims, and lawsuits, and of the grave safety dangers associated with the exploding airbags,” reads the complaint.

The first vehicles with Takata-produced airbags were recalled in 2009. However, the vehicle included in the latest fatality wasn’t recalled until June 2014.

In all, seven deaths and more than 100 injuries have now been linked to the airbags. Takata finally caved to regulator pressure last month declaring some 34 million safety devices as defective, initiating one of the largest auto recalls in U.S. history.

Soon after the massive recall was announced, Takata gave confirmation that hundreds of thousands of already-replaced Takata airbags will need to be fixed again.

While automakers have continuously added models to their roster of affected vehicles, regulators say it could be months before a final list is completed.

Honda Links a Rupturing Takata Airbag to a 7th Death [The New York Times]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Local Official Thinks It’s Uncool To Pay $25 Parking Ticket In Pennies, But Affirms Man’s Right To Do So

(Great Beyond)

A Pennsylvania man who was rebuffed when he tried to pay a $25 parking ticket he owed to his borough entirely in pennies should’ve been able to use those coins, a local official said, but really, it was kind of rude for him to do so.

The handyman had found the $25 ticket on his work truck, after he parked it the wrong way on a street while he was picking up some tools at a house for about 10 mintues, he told the Chambersburg Public Opinion, and was annoyed at the amount.

“I just thought the amount of the ticket was ridiculous. I wasn’t parked at a hydrant, wasn’t blocking traffic or emergency vehicles,” he said.

He decided to use coins to tick someone off.

“I work too hard for my money and thought it would be fun to get back at someone, inconvenience them like they inconvenienced me,” he told the paper.

But when he plunked the payment down on the borough office counter, he said an employee pointed to a purported federal regulation notice on the bulletin board reading: “Federal law specifies pennies and nickels as small change and not legal tender for debts in excess of 25 cents.”

According to Borough Finance Director Jason Cohen, that regulation is Code 31 U.S. Code annotated, Sections 317 and 460 to the Public Opinion, and added that the man could’ve paid in quarters and dimes.

That would mean if you owed the city a dollar, you couldn’t pay it in pennies, or 20 nickels. Sounds ridiculous, so where did the finance director get that idea? Because as one user on a Snopes.com forum about this very story notes, those sections of the legal code don’t appear to exist.

Indeed. According to 31 U.S.C.A. 5103:

United States coins and currency (including Federal reserve notes and circulating notes of Federal reserve banks and national banks) are legal tender for all debts, public charges, taxes, and dues. Foreign gold or silver coins are not legal tender for debts.

Another Snopes forum user pointed to a University of Tennessee’s MTAS program document that notes that previous versions of the statute that limited payments using minor coins has been amended to remove that language.

Borough Manager Jeffrey Stonehill affirmed the man’s right to pay the parking ticket with whatever coins he wanted to, sending newspapers a letter yesterday saying that the finance director was incorrect, reports PennLive.

However, Stonehill wrote that he could’ve gone about things another way if he wanted to make a point.

“I do not support this citizen’s protest. He is quoted in the newspaper admitting to illegally parking the wrong way on a street,” Stonehill wrote in the letter, referencing the man’s quote to the Public Opinion. “Finally, tormenting a borough cashier, rather than pleading not guilty to the offense in a court of law, which is his right, is not an appropriate protest, in my opinion.”

The man seems to have another opinion, telling the newspaper that he hadn’t paid the fine yet.

“I’ve been busy and I still have time,” he explained. “I’m trying to think of an alternative way to inconvenience them.”

Related: Man Does A Deep Dive Into Sofa Cushions, Pays $150K Court-Ordered Fee All In Quarters

Borough rejects pennies as payment for parking ticket [Chambersburg Public Opinion]
Parking fine can’t be paid with pennies, town says, but dimes are OK [PennLive.com]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

CFPB Asks Google, Bing & Yahoo To Help Stop Student Loan Debt Scams That Imply Affiliation With Feds

(thisisbossi)

The Internet is teeming with scammers, fraudsters, and hustlers determined to part consumers from their money, and as a $1.2 trillion venture, student loans often present an attractive avenue for these ne’er-do-wells. In order to better protect individuals from such schemes, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is enlisting the help of the country’s major search engines. 

In letters to Google, Bing and Yahoo, CFPB Student Loan Ombudsman Rohit Chopra expressed concern that debt relief scammers are using aggressive advertising through search products to sink their teeth into unsuspecting consumers.

While many of the search engines have their own policies in place to protect consumers against misrepresentations in advertisements, the CFPB urges the companies to work with federal and state agencies to ensure search products are not being used by debt relief companies to prey on student loan borrowers by implying an affiliation with the federal government.

“By more closely monitoring advertising on key search terms and helping to drive traffic toward unbiased sources of information, your users will gain greater value from your search products and scammers will be less likely to flourish,” the letter [PDF] to Google states.

These unscrupulous companies – many of which require large upfront fees to help student loan borrowers enroll in a plan that can be done for free – have increased in presence in recent years, the CFPB says.

The U.S. Department of Education offers numerous plans to borrowers with federal student loans to make payments more affordable. These include options that let borrowers set their monthly payment based on their income. Monthly payments under these plans can be as low as zero dollars per month for unemployed or very low-wage borrowers. The Department of Education does not charge any fees to apply for or enroll in these plans, for which many student loan borrowers qualify.

Last December, the CFPB released a special advisory warning consumers to be on the lookout for such scams.

According to the analysis of Google Trends, the CFPB believes that struggling borrowers are falling victim to these scams when searching for help using keywords such as “student loan default,” “student loan forgiveness,” and “Obama student loan relief.”

“This bears a close resemblance to the foreclosure crisis, where borrowers were given conflicting information about their options and found scammers who made false promises on loan modifications in exchange for upfront fees,” the letter states.

As a result, back in 2011, Google partnered with the Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program to help stop scammers preying on homeowners in trouble.

 

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Regulators Deny Request For Investigation Into 5 Million Fiat Chrysler Vehicles

(bluwmongoose)

Following a probe into 23 safety recalls and 11 million cars – which resulted in a record-setting $105 million fine – it appears that Fiat Chrysler is getting a little bit of good news from federal regulators. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has decided to not open an investigation into nearly five million other vehicles over power system failures.

The regulator denied a 2014 petition [PDF] from the Center for Auto Safety that called for an investigation into an electrical power control module used by the car maker in multiple vehicles produced since 2007.

According to NHTSA’s denial [PDF], regulators found “no valid evidence” to support the claims in the petition.

Last August, the advocacy group filed a request for the investigation, contending that defects in the Totally Integrated Power Module (TIPM) could result in engine stalls, airbag non-deployment, failure of fuel pump shutoff resulting in unintended acceleration, fire and other issues.

Vehicles covered by the petition included Ram pickup trucks, Chrysler and Dodge minivans, Jeep Grand Cherokee and Wrangler, as well as Dodge Durango and Journey SUVs.

In September 2014, NHTSA’s Office of Defects Investigation opened an evaluation into the petition. At that time, regulators began analyzing data provided by the Center for Auto Safety and complaints submitted to NHTSA from consumers.

In all, NHTSA says there were 296 complaints submitted by the advocacy group and 76 complaints in its own database. While investigators found no safety defect trends, they did find field analysis that indicated model year 2011 to 2013 Jeep Grand Cherokee and Dodge Durango vehicles had higher complaint rates for fuel pump relay failure.

Later that same month, Fiat Chrysler notified NHTSA that it would recall 188,723 model year 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee and Dodge Durango vehicles. In February of this year, the company expanded the recall to cover an additional 338,216 model year 2012 to 2013 Jeep Grand Cherokee and model year 2012 Dodge Durango vehicles.

Despite the recall initiated by Fiat Chrysler, NHTSA’s investigation determined that the Center for Auto Safety’s allegations were not supported.

“No valid evidence was presented in support of claims related to airbag non-deployment, unintended acceleration or fire resulting from TIPM faults and these claims were found to be wholly without merit based on review of the field data and design of the relevant systems and components,” the notice states.

NHTSA says that any additional investigation into the matter is unlikely to result in a finding that a defect related to vehicle safety exists in the vehicles.

“Therefore, in view of the need to allocate and prioritize NHTSA’s limited resources to best accomplish the agency’s safety mission, the petition is denied,” the notice concludes.

Clarence Ditlow, executive director for the Center for Auto Safety, tells the Associated Press, that he considers the two recalls issued by Fiat Chrysler to be a victory.

He says that the Center would continue to monitor the issues to determine if other vehicles could be covered by the stalling recall.

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

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Starbucks Announces Actual Pumpkin Will Be Added To Pumpkin Spice Latte

Well, it’s August, and we all know what that means: several more weeks of summer! Oh, and also that pumpkin spice lattes will soon be hitting your nearest Starbucks, because that happens well before fall begins. This year, Starbucks is drawing attention to the annual event by changing the recipe up a bit, removing caramel coloring and changing to a pumpkin sauce that has a small amount of pumpkin purée in it.

It’s probably no coincidence that a post detailing the ingredients of a pumpkin spice latte by Vani “Food Babe” Hari, a noted nutritional scaremongerer, went up on the day that the latte first went on sale last year, aiming to capture peak PSL-related Internet traffic and buzz. Her Pinterest-ready graphic contained a generous helping of nonsense (50 grams is a lot of added sugar but not “toxic,” for example) but also raised some interesting questions, such as why a drink that already has espresso in it needs artificial caramel coloring, and why there was absolutely no pumpkin in a pumpkin spice latte.

Both of those things are what Starbucks is changing: in a blog post today, the company announced that they’ll be slightly changing the recipe this year. They’re eliminating the caramel coloring, and switching to a pumpkin sauce that contains a small amount of pumpkin purée.

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

Britax Recalls 213,000 Car Seats Because They Might Not Secure The Child

Britax recalled 213,000 car seats because they might not actually secure a child.

Britax Child Safety Inc. initiated a recall this week of more than 213,000 car seats after finding buttons on the safety devices could fail, leaving a child essentially unsecured.

The recall covers thousands of Britax ClickTight, Boulevard ChickTight and Marathon ClickTight car seats that have a red harness adjuster button that may stick in the release position.

If the button fails, the shoulder harness can loosen from a child’s movements while secured in the seat. As a result, the harness may not adequately protect the child in the event of a crash.

Britax says that an inventory of the seats found a small percentage of the harness adjuster buttons were manufactured out of tolerance. Under certain conditions, the button could remain in the open position after being used to adjust the harness.

According to a notice [PDF] filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Britax became aware of the issue through a consumer’s Facebook post in late July. The company subsequently found four complaints on the NHTSA database related to loose harnesses and the ClickTight models.

“Today while driving, my child was able to loosen his harness after I had installed it tightly,” one complainant writes. “After pulling over, I pulled it tight again and was able to pull it loose without pushing the button usually needed to loosen it. I was able to do this several times.”

“I recently bought a Britax Advocate ClickTight, we used it once before we started to have issues with the harness getting tight enough to pass the pinch test,” another complaint states. I would pull on the harness, and it would “click” but it was not tight enough, if she wanted to, she should have climbed out of the seat.”

Britax says that in all, it has received approximately 18 consumer complaints since production began in August 2014 related to loose harnesses on ClickTight convertibles. However, the company did not receive return products for inspection –to determine if food or other debris caused the condition– nor was Britax able to replicate the complaints with existing inventory.

The company says that in order to fix the issue, it will provide all registered users a free remedy kit that includes a non-toxic food grade lubricant to apply directly to the harness adjuster button.

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

All New Albums Will Be Released On Fridays: Did Anyone Even Notice?

(Adam Fagen)

At some point in the last 25 years or so, you’ve probably anticipated a new album release from a favorite artist and made a special midweek trip to your favorite music store to buy it. This might be an unfamiliar ritual to our younger readers, but was a thing that people did…until this week. Starting today, labels worldwide will all release their new albums on Fridays.

That leads to the inevitable question: will anyone notice? NPR reports that sales of whole albums are down, but people are using paid streaming services to listen to more music. While it’s good to know what day a new release drops on Pandora, Spotify, or Apple Music, that doesn’t really have the same significance of lining up outside of your favorite record store for a new release.

Tuesday releases are a relic of the time when all music came on physical discs and tapes, and the stores had to make sure that they had new releases in stock from their suppliers and ready to go. Other countries had Mondays and Fridays as their release days: Tuesday is just what the industry decided on here in the United States.

The owner of one independent record store pointed out to NPR that Tuesday releases are great for his business: they bring customers in midweek. His store planned concerts, promotions, and their advertising around Tuesday releases. Switching to Fridays means that the store’s traffic pattern will change, and so will its staff schedules and promotional activities.

The consistent worldwide day solves one problem: different release days in different countries make it super-easy for people to make copies and share them online. It’s a little surprising that music labels got around to solving this fifteen-year-old problem now, but at least they did.

Goodbye, Music Tuesday: Starting Today, Albums Come Out On Friday [NPR]

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist