Auto Industry Agrees to Cooperate With Government on Safety

Seventeen automakers have reached an agreement with the U.S. government to cooperate on safety issues in the future.

The pact was announced Friday at the Detroit auto show by Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx.

The two sides will consider better ways for the industry to communicate with the highway safety regulators.

Automakers and regulators will study whether the aviation industry’s voluntary safety reporting can be applied to autos, and they agreed to look at using big data to spot and report safety problems faster. They’ll also work together to increase the percentage of recall repairs that get done, and they’ll study and share cybersecurity information.

In recent years, the U.S. public has learned of serious safety issues with cars on the road that went unreported for long periods of time.