The Socio-Political Construction of Technologies under "Technology-Forcing" Regulations: A Tale of Two Automotive Technologies, "One" Government and "One" Industry

Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh PA

Investigators

Abstract

Project Summary. In the 1960s, U.S. automobile manufacturers faced two sets of demands to change their cars. One centered on making cars safer and resulted in the passage of the Highway Safety Act of 1966, the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966, and the Highway Safety Act of 1970. This last act created the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which soon mandated that automobile manufacturers provide "passive" protection technologies for front-seat occupants of new cars. The second set of demands centered on lowering harmful auto emissions and contributed to passage of the 1965 Clean Air Act Amendments, the Air Quality Act (1967), the National Environmental Policy Act (1969), and the Clear Air Act (1970). Implementing and enforcing the Clear Air Act fell to the new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). These events constitute what is as close to an ideal "natural experiment" for the historian and analyst of technological change as one could ever want: one now-regulated industry (the auto manufacturers), two sets of federal laws "with teeth" (the Highway Safety Act of 1970 and the Clear Air Act of 1970), and two new federal agencies (NHTSA and EPA) to oversee the new regulations. Although automotive safety and emission-control technologies began at the same time, the same carmakers were involved and the federal government was the principal regulator, the paths in safety and emission control quickly diverged. Their technological outcomes differed dramatically. Surprisingly, although historians, sociologists, political scientists, economists, and STS scholars have studied automobile safety regulation and environmental regulation of automobile emission, no scholars have rigorously and systematically compared and contrasted these parallel developments, the processes of innovation that occurred, the new technologies they bred, and the different outcomes in automobile safety and emissions after a quarter century. The Intellectual Merits of this project lie in the effort to assemble data generated during and after this experiment in "technology forcing," to conduct analyses of these data, and to generate a series of historical and policy studies (and eventually a book) on federal regulation, the automobile industry, and technological innovation. Drawing on existing secondary literature, carrying out research in published and archival sources, and conducting interviews with important actors, the PIs will construct a historically based study of automotive safety and emission-control technologies, patterns of innovation and learning in these technologies, and socio-political processes of technology in the period 1965 - 2000. Actor-network analysis of Science and Technology Studies provides one tool by which to understand the dynamics of regulation and institutional and technological innovation that led to "safer" and "more environmentally-friendly" cars. The PIs will also employ the tools of the historian of science and technology, the economist of industrial and technical change, and the environmental and mechanical engineer. Although technology-forcing regulation is known to have succeeded in driving technological innovation in several instances, considerable debate remains about the efficiencies of this approach versus market-based instruments. Cost and availability of technology are primary sources of uncertainty in adopting technology-forcing regulations. Risks involved include forcing the development to technologies that are too costly or fail to meet objectives. Technology-forcing regulation has been and will continue to be a critical challenge. This is true for the auto industry in the face of climate change regulation and safety issues, and in other industries. In terms of Broader Impacts, this contextualized analysis of the interaction between technology-forcing regulation, R&D, and institutional and technological innovation that have led to "safer" and "more environmentally-friendly" cars will improve understanding of how and when these regulations work. Government regulators and regulated firms and industries will gain a better understanding of the dynamics of technology forcing and will, it is hoped, learn from that understanding.