Senate to address Boeing safety culture in hearings
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Can an app teach driver’s education? Columbus, Ohio-based Grange Insurance believes so: It is working on an app to help teach teen drivers and point out problematic practices. However, current state law requires certified driving instructors to teach eight hours of behind-the-wheel training.
In response, Ohio lawmakers introduced bill that would allow student drivers to complete eight hours of incar training with instruction from an app.
If it passes, Ohio would be among the first states to allow app-based driver’s education training.
There are some rules: The student driver must also have an eligible adult in the car and must complete 24 hours of classroom training.
The Ohio Director of Public Safety would need to approve any app to ensure it meets the state’s standards for teaching individuals how to drive.
The app could make driver’s education more accessible to teenagers who live far from a driving school or who can’t afford between $400 and $800 for in-car and classroom instruction. Parents could also use the app during the 50 hours of in-car practice student drivers must complete.
“Sometimes a young driver might listen to an app better than a parent,” said Rep. Roy Klopfenstein, R-Haviland, one of the bill’s sponsors.
But an app isn’t a substitute for a trained driving instructor, said Mike Belcuore, AAA’s manager of driver education and operations.
“I’m not against technology in this,” he said. “I think there’s room for it in driver’s ed and I think there’s room for it in in-car instruction. My concern is just throwing an app on an untrained person.”
Instructors have cars equipped with a second brake, which allows them to put students in less comfortable scenarios to test their driving skills, Belcuore said.
“An app doesn’t have the ability to stop the car or steer the car.”
Klopfenstein said there will always be a need for trained driving instructors because each student learns differently.
“It is not, in my mind, to replace the licensed driving instructor,” he said. “It’s to aid in getting better drivers, and that’s the bottom line.”
Grange Insurance’s Innovation Officer Jason Wrather said in a statement: “(T)he app is envisioned as a support tool to improve driver training outcomes and safety, and not as a replacement for trained, in-person driver education practices.”
Klopfenstein also said he’s not concerned that the app would distract parents or student drivers.
“My GPS, I don’t have to look at anymore. It talks to me,” he said. “Young drivers adapt to the electronics quicker than older folks.”
What about those underlying problems with accessing driver’s education? Belcuore acknowledged that finding a qualified instructor outside Ohio’s largest cities can be a “real challenge” but he said an app isn’t the only solution.
The bills were introduced earlier this year and await committee hearings. Grange’s Wrather said there is no specific timetable for the app’s launch at this point.
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Senate Commerce Committee said on Thursday it would hold a hearing next week with members of an expert panel that released a report in February criticizing Boeing’s safety culture and calling for significant improvements.
The airplane manufacturer has been grappling with a full-blown safety crisis that has undermined its reputation following a Jan. 5 midair panel blowout on a new 737 Max 9.
The committee will hear from three panel members: Tracy Dillinger, a NASA expert on safety culture; Javier de Luis, an aeronautics expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and Najmedin Meshkati, a University of Southern California professor and expert on aviation safety.
Sen. Maria Cantwell, the committee chair, said on Wednesday she was impressed with the expert panel report and wanted to hear from members before she called the Federal Aviation Administration for a future hearing.
Boeing declined to comment on the hearing.
The panel’s report was directed by Congress after fatal 737 Max crashes in Indonesia in 2018 and Ethiopia in 2019 that killed 346 people – including panel member De Luis’ sister in the Ethiopian crash.
It criticized Boeing’s safety culture on a number of fronts and found “a lack of awareness of safety-related metrics at all levels of the organization.”
The panel, appointed by the FAA in early 2023, said Boeing should review the recommendations “and develop an action plan” within six months.
The FAA in February ordered Boeing to address systemic quality-control issues within 90 days after an audit found fault with the company’s manufacturing processes.
Also, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations will hear testimony next Wednesday from Boeing engineer Sam Salehpour, a whistleblower who claims the company dismissed safety and quality concerns in the production of 787 and 777 jets.
That panel’s chair, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, has also asked outgoing CEO Dave Calhoun to testify at a future hearing.
Boeing responded this week to Salehpour, saying the company is fully confident in the 787, adding that the claims “are inaccurate and do not represent the comprehensive work Boeing has done to ensure the quality and long-term safety of the aircraft.”