Safety

A new study co-authored by Prof. Retsef Levi finds vaccine passports “that exempt vaccinated people from regular Covid-19 testing would allow many infections to be missed,” reports Nancy Lapid for Reuters.

A new working paper co-authored by Visiting Assistant Professor Jordan Nickerson finds that increasingly protective child car-seat laws have contributed to a reduced birth rate in America, reports The Economist. Nickerson and his colleagues found that tightening car-seat laws “was accompanied by a drop, on average, of 0.73 percentage points in the number of women giving birth to a third while the first two were young enough to need safety seats.”

In a guest post for the Financial Times, DUSP research affiliate Ashley Nunes argues that airline customers should be willing to pay more for safety in the wake of the recent aviation disasters.

Sloan sophomore Kai Kloepfer developed a “prototype of a biometrically secured ‘smart gun’ that could be fired only by its owner,” writes Mark Wallace for Fast Company. “We have to physically integrate our technology into the handgun,” Kloepfer says. “So that means attaching circuit boards and incorporating batteries. There has to be physical space made.”

MIT Media Lab spin out Affectiva has launched AI software that tracks drivers' emotions, energy, and distraction levels, writes Sasha Lekach of Mashable. The system uses “face and head tracking with near-infrared and RGB cameras” to measure facial expressions and emotions and listen for sounds, explains Lekach.

Writing for Fortune, Prof. Nicholas Ashford explains that the U.S. should implement more stringent chemical safety measures to prevent explosions. “Government at all levels should hasten the adoption of common-sense, inherently safer rules to save lives, and to protect businesses and communities,” Ashford explains. 

Research engineer Bryan Reimer speaks with Chuck Tannert of Fast Company about the need for more investment in technology that can help make cars safer. “It is clear that safety on the nation’s roads is in question, necessitating a review of investments to double down on what is working and innovate where needed,” Reimer explains. 

Prof. John Hansman speaks with AP reporter Rodrique Ngowi following the crash of a Germanwings flight about how it is it unlikely that a similar situation could occur on an aircraft operated by an American carrier. U.S. safety procedures require that two people to be in the airline’s cockpit “in case the remaining pilot becomes incapacitated," Hansman explains.