Latest / Auto Collabs / Inside Honda’s Zero-Fatality Plan for 2050 with Brian Bautsch

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Inside Honda’s Zero-Fatality Plan for 2050 with Brian Bautsch · Auto Collabs

• 0:00
  Welcome to Auto Collapse. You're listening to an exclusive series recorded live at Automobility LA 2025 in partnership with Cars Commerce. All right. We're here, we're back here at the LA Auto Show.
• 0:10
  We're with Brian Bouch, Director of Safety and Strategy for American Honda. Great to be here. First time guest on our show, so- Thank you... nice to have you. Thank you. Yeah, thank you very much. All right.
• 0:19
  So, um, your job involves achieving a very, very audacious goal. And, I mean, we're looking at zero fatalities by 2050? Zero. Tell, tell us about where that came from, and, uh, we'll- we're gonna dig into this one. Yeah.
• 0:36
  So we- we've set that ambitious goal about five years ago, and- and we've really set a- a strategy on a three-prong approach.
• 0:42
  Looking at how to advance technology, continue to look at active safety systems, airbags, crumple zones.
• 0:48
  But also the human e- aspect, of really how to collaborate with the humans and- and really understand how to change risky behavior. Hmm.
• 0:56
  And the third is really looking at partnerships and collaborations with like-minded organizations that are doing the same thing that we're after, which is to achieve zero fatalities. I, uh, the...
• 1:06
  Well, one, we- we'll go into the technology. The one that I'm most interested in is how you're partnering to make sure that humans actually exhibit less risky behaviors while driving.
• 1:16
  And you're not saying, like, "Oh, we're just going full autonomous," like get rid of the human driver. You want the human driver to have a better experience in the car.
• 1:24
  How are you, uh, tracking toward that, both from training or resourcing or anything like that? Yeah.
• 1:29
  We- we've partnered actually with, uh, our tech ed company, Discovery Education, and we've- we've created a program called Honda Safety Driven, which is getting into the classroom and getting students, kids at young ages.
• 1:41
  So K through 12, we've developed this program. 'Cause as we know, over 50% of the crashes or fatalities are because of risky behavior. Speeding, unbelted, impairment, distracted.
• 1:51
  So g- getting into the classroom and teaching the students proper behaviors in and around vehicles early so that when they become drivers, they're less risky and- and much more better drivers on the road. Wow.
• 2:01
  So what, what does that program look like today? So we've almost reached one million students in the United States. So cool.
• 2:08
  We partnered with Discovery Education 'cause they have over 4.5 million educators in the US that can get to the students. And so they're teaching that.
• 2:15
  Everything is standards based, so when they teach the curriculum, everything goes towards physics credits and those sort of things. And we've really made a big dent in, in the US.
• 2:24
  Let's talk about now the technology and the safety. Um, if you've bought a new car and if you've upgraded to a modern car from an older car, um, usually it's beeping, it- [laughs]...
• 2:34
  your butt is buzzing, your steering wheel is doing a thing. That's right. So there's all types of new safety, uh, technology out there. What types are you focusing on, um, as you develop the next generation?
• 2:45
  No, you- you've hit it on the head. E- We talked about new drivers that are driving maybe older vehicles, used vehicles. The vehicle technology today is leaps and bounds what was even five, 10 years ago. Yeah.
• 2:55
  So the advancement of the active safety system, and, and at Honda, we have Honda Sensing 360 or Acura Watch360, which are s- our next evolution of our active safety suite, our driver assistant safety technology.
• 3:06
  So we're really looking at how to continue to advance that, and that's the gateway for us to get into autonomy, into autonomous vehicles, right? The level three and four and five.
• 3:16
  So getting that, the customers educated on those systems is critical so that when we take that next step into level three, level four, they're aware and they understand how this technology works. Yeah.
• 3:28
  Uh, I- I think it's interesting, you know, w- e- even when you talk about EVs, there's these kind of, like, steps that you have to take to...
• 3:35
  You know, there are some customers that are willing to just go full in and go, "Yeah, I'm re-..." Like, "Put me in a level five autonomous vehicle, and I'll just sit back and relax."
• 3:43
  But so many need those graduated steps. Um, how are you thinking about graduating people in that from a consumer education perspective, um, and not just, you know, people that are coming up through the education ranks?
• 3:55
  Yeah. You, you definitely have those early adopters that are like, "I'm all in. Give it to me-" Yeah... "right now." But there's others that we're gaining... We're building trust.
• 4:02
  So it's slow, it's incremental, and it's smart, and it's safe. So the education is huge. I think about my, my parents or my grandparents, like, "Everything's beeping on me. What's beeping," right?
• 4:11
  [laughs] It's how to get that educated. You know, working through our dealers or some campaigns that help educate our consumers, our customers, that this is why that system is there. It's to benefit you.
• 4:21
  It's to make you safer. Here's how it works. Don't turn it off, 'cause it's there to help you. So many of our listeners are gonna be in that retail environment. Mm-hmm. How would you be encouraging dealers?
• 4:31
  Because obviously sales and service are such big targets and goals.
• 4:35
  But there's, there's a, there's a, there's a part that has come alongside the future education of making sure that the mobility is still there front and center, right? Yeah. Is, is being a part of that education path.
• 4:47
  How are you encouraging retailers to be a part of that? Yeah. It's just constant dialogue.
• 4:52
  And, and as new technology comes on, and it's, you know, s- soon to be in our vehicles and we start the deployment, making sure that our, our dealer network is fully aware of how the systems work, why they're there, and really help those consumers that maybe don't even understand today's technology, to really help them educate for the next, the future technology as well.
• 5:10
  So can you give us a, an idea on how the curve is going right now? You have this goal in 2050. Here we are in 2025. Um, what's the curve been doing over the last 10 years, and how, how are we heading and are we tracking?
• 5:24
  No, it... And unfortunately, we saw a big spike during COVID. As COVID hit, there was less vehicles on the road, and you're thinking, "Oh, then maybe fatalities will go down in the US."
• 5:33
  Actually, they went up quite a bit because there was more- Interesting... space. More people could speed. And of course, mental health- Wow... took a di- dive.
• 5:39
  And so, um, impairment and, and alcohol and drug-induced crashes were definitely on the rise. Luckily, we're starting to see that come back to, to almost pre-COVID levels.
• 5:49
  And it's, what we're really focusing on, again, those are those three pillars, is the technology advancement, the education, and really the collaboration and partnerships to get us to, you know, in 25 years, our ultimate goal is to have zero.
• 6:00
  That's amazing. Well, Brian, thank you so much for hanging out with us. Thank you.
• 6:03
  I think it's really cool that you have this unique strategy at the forefront of, of your mind, uh, every day, and it's, it's neat to, to kind of get a little peek behind the curtain of, of a, of more than just a technology approach to solving this problem.
• 6:15
  That's right. Yeah. Thanks for joining us. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Yeah. Thank you for listening to this LA Auto Show session, brought to you by Cars Commerce.
• 6:22
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• 6:30
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