Guidelines and Standards

Here at Ford, our objective is to design and manufacture vehicles that achieve high levels of vehicle safety for a wide range of people over the broad spectrum of real-world conditions. Real-world safety data, research, regulatory requirements and voluntary agreements provide much of the input into our safety processes, including our Safety Design Guidelines, which are Ford's stringent internal engineering design targets that exceed regulatory requirements.

Ford utilizes engineering analysis, extensive computer modeling and crash and sled testing to evaluate the performance of vehicles and individual components. These rigorous evaluations help to confirm that our vehicles meet or exceed regulatory requirements and our even more stringent internal guidelines. Our state-of-the-art crash-test facilities include the Safety Innovation Laboratory in Dearborn, Michigan, the Volvo Car Safety Centre in Gothenburg, Sweden, and the extensive crash test facilities in Merkenich, Germany, and Dunton, England.

Global Technical Regulations

The automotive industry is highly regulated, and two systems of vehicle regulation currently predominate globally: the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN/ECE) Regulations and the U.S. Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards. A limited number of countries (including Canada and Mexico) base many of their regulations on U.S. requirements. The members of the European Union (EU) and the Economic Commission for Europe employ a common set of directives that increasingly mirror the UN/ECE regulations, and much of the rest of the world is adopting the UN/ECE regulations or regulations based upon them. Unfortunately, many of these UN/ECE-based regulations can have unique interpretations or unique additional requirements when implemented by individual countries.

When countries have different regulatory requirements or add unique additional requirements to standard U.S. or UN/ECE regulations – purportedly to meet the same overall safety objectives – manufacturers must modify their vehicle designs and features to meet the different regulations of the various markets. These modifications increase vehicle complexity and cost, usually with no additional real-world safety benefit.

Recognizing the potential benefits of harmonizing world vehicle regulations, the United States proposed an agreement to create a system to harmonize the competing national and regional regulatory systems. The end result was the "1998 Agreement Concerning the Establishing of Global Technical Regulations for Wheeled Vehicles, Equipment and Parts which can be Fitted and/or be Used on Wheeled Vehicles" ("the 1998 Agreement"). The 1998 Agreement has the backing of all the world's major automobile-producing countries. At present, 40 nations are signatories to the Agreement, including the United States, Japan, Canada, Russia, South Korea, South Africa, Turkey, Romania, Azerbaijan, India, the EU and a number of EU member states. As a result of the 1998 Agreement, which is administered by UN/ECE Working Party 29, the signatory countries have begun to work together to develop harmonized Global Technical Regulations (GTRs).

Ford Motor Company participates in the GTR development process. The first GTR, addressing standards for door locks and door retention components, was agreed to by the contracting parties in 2004. In 2005 and 2006, four more GTRs were approved. These included, for example, pollution-testing procedures for certain engines fueled with natural gas or liquefied petroleum gas, and technical requirements for on-board diagnostic systems. Two more GTRs were approved in March 2008, for head restraints and safety glazing. GTRs for pedestrian protection and electronic stability control systems are expected to be approved later in 2008. Numerous additional GTRs are under consideration.

Progress toward true harmonization (i.e., complete alignment of regulations within a GTR) has been challenging, however, due to the difficulty of reconciling varied national requirements and the historical differences of existing regulations. For example, in spite of an agreement to approve the head restraints GTR, countries' regulations on this topic may continue to differ due to provisions within the GTR that allow the contracting parties to select different requirements from a list of options. Despite these types of challenges, Ford continues to believe that true harmonization has the potential to significantly reduce global complexity while maintaining high levels of vehicle safety, and Ford will continue to support the harmonization of global regulations via the 1998 Agreement.