Jason Levine has been an active advocate for traffic safety and better cars for all the time he was ahead of the Center for Auto Safety. Founded in 1970 by Ralph Nader and Consumer Union, the center has been crucial in bringing attention to multiple problems American customers have to face. Well, Levine quit on December 31, but that’s not bad news.
According to Automotive News, the executive is now the director of the Office of Communications at the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. Although that means he will be in charge of talking about consumer problems in that country, Levine will probably still keep an eye on anything that may harm customers related to cars and traffic.
In his four and a half years ahead of the Center for Auto Safety, Levine fought for safer seats. When a Tesla Model Y presented a bent front seat in an accident in 2020, he stressed that it probably complied with FMVSS 207. However, this regulation is clearly insufficient to protect passengers. The Center for Auto Safety is still fighting to get an update and more strict rules regarding seats.
Levine has also been very vocal about how Tesla’s pursuit of autonomous driving with Autopilot and FSD was “an absurd idea at this point in time with the technology available and infrastructure available.” He also told Consumer Reports that testing the beta software in public roads could “at best set back the cause of safety and at worst result in preventable crashes and deaths.”
Levine’s tenure at the Center for Auto Safety brought up multiple other issues with carmakers. Among the most recent was his concern with how big the GMC Hummer EV was massive (9,046 pounds, or 4,103 kilograms). GM used to brag about how fast this beast would go from 0 to 60 mph (97 kph). In this opinion, “decreasing the time such a vehicle takes to accelerate will not increase safety.” May he keep as combative at the Office of Communications at the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission as he was in the center.
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