The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is being urged by the National Academy of Science (NAS) to refine its investigative techniques and add technical help to meet increasingly complex automobile technology. The academy feels that the NHTSA lacks the understanding of hardware and software automakers are installing in their new vehicles, which became prevalent during the NHTSAs investigation into unintended acceleration in Toyota vehicles in 2009/2010. Members of the NAS said that the NHTSA did all they could during the investigation, but a lack of understanding of the technology slowed down the process.

Some of the recommendation made by the NAS include:

• A push to have automakers install “black boxes” on all new vehicles to record crash data.
• The federal agency form an advisory panel of specialists who can assist both in regulatory reviews and specific vehicle investigations.
• Review of how the agency’s investigators share data with its researchers.

The safety agency says it has already taken steps to strengthen its expertise in electronic control systems, and will continue to work with the National Academy of Sciences to do more to ensure the safety of consumers.