New US Tyre Testing Standards
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has revealed details of the new tests that tyres for passenger cars and light trucks will have to undergo by 2007. The program includes speed and endurance tests, plus a test with the tyre under-inflated. The NHTSA reckons that most tyres will reach the new standards, with something between five and eleven per cent of tyres having to be re-designed. These are the first new standards since 1967 and were prompted by the Firestone recall. The NHTSA estimates that the cost to manufacturers will be $31.6 million.