The Audi A3 is one of the smallest vehicles sold by Volkswagen’s luxury brand, Audi. Manufactured in Germany, Hungary, China, and India, it shares a platform with Volkswagen Golf, and is designed to compete with other compact luxury sedans including the Mercedes-Benz CLA-Class, Lexus IS, Acura ILX, and Lexus CT hybrid.
Like the vehicles it competes with, the A3 hits the ground running with a range of top notch crash scores and safety features, including side airbags and ESC, as well as frontal crash protection in the latest models. In fact, it’s one of the few vehicles with superior levels of rollover protection at every trim level, which is why I’ve ranked it as one of the safest luxury cars you can choose to keep you safe during a rollover.
As a result,even if you aren’t an executive or business-type, the Audi A3 is worth considering if you’re a parent interested in one of the safest sedans money can buy. As a result, I got up close and personal with the initial generation of the A3 to see just how car-seat friendly it would be for interested families.
Before looking at which car seats did and didn’t fit in the A3 in 3 across setups, it’s worth reviewing a bit of car safety, in terms of which kinds of seats to use and when.
For me, the most basic and essential part of car seat safety involves rear-facing. It’s the safest position we know of, and the longer our kids rear-face, the safer they’ll be, regardless of what kind of vehicle they travel in. I recommend keeping children in rear-facing infant or convertible seats as long as possible (ideally until 4!), then keeping them harnessed in forward-facing seats for several years more (ideally until 8!), and then only switching them out of booster seats when they pass the 5 step test (which typically happens between 10 and 12). The goal is to keep kids in the safest kinds of seats for as long as possible to increase their odds of surviving serious car crashes.
With that all in mind, I got to work with my seats to create what I believe to be the most detailed 3 across guide for the Audi A3 on the Internet. If you find the list helpful when shopping for car seats, you can shop through my Amazon link below. I’ll add more seats as I test them over time.
The current generation A3 is 175 inches long and just under 71 inches wide, which means you won’t have too many seats to choose from when it comes to 3 across setups. However, even though the back row isn’t the widest, it’s definitely wide enough for several of the narrower seats as long as you’re willing to use your seat belts instead of LATCH for the installation. Remember that seat belts are as safe as LATCH, and in some cases, safer, depending on the weight limits of your car seats.
Because the A3 is also a rather short vehicle, you’re quite likely to find yourself compromised on front-to-back space, especially if you’ve got taller drivers or passengers. If you’re interested in which safe seats take up the least space, you’ll want to check out my front-to-back comparison chart for rear-facing convertibles.
When it comes to driving, there are four main ways to keep yourself and the ones you love safe on the road: 1. Avoiding driving entirely, 2. limiting driving, 3. driving safely, and 4. driving safe vehicles. Much like reducing, reusing, and recycling, the earlier actions are more effective than the later actions.
The safest driving technique is to avoid driving entirely. If you can’t avoid driving, you’ll want to spend as little time in passenger vehicles as possible. When that’s not possible, you’ll want to use the safest driving techniques you have at hand, and when all else fails, you’ll want to choose the safest vehicles possible when you have to be behind the wheel.
Today’s article focuses on the third tier of action: safe driving techniques. These are the things you do whenever you enter a passenger vehicle, whether as a driver or as a passenger. An example of a technique most of us use is to safely restrain ourselves and our children if we have them. Another example–which we’ll focus on today–is to drive with headlights or daytime running lights.
Why should we drive with headlights on or consider vehicles with daytime running lights (DRLs)?
DRLs are basically low-energy headlights that are programmed to light up whenever your vehicle is running. They’re a cheap, simple, and effective way to reduce your risk of being involved in a crash, particularly head-on collisions during the daytime as well as collisions involving the front corners of your vehicle. You see oncoming traffic more easily when it’s lit up, and the traffic sees you more easily when you’re lit up. Or to put it another way:
1. Headlights/DRLs reduce your risks of daytime frontal collisions. Making yourself visible means you’re less likely to have a driver drift into your lane when approaching you.
2. Headlights reduce your risks of daytime rear-end collisions. If your taillights are lit up, you’re less likely to be rear-ended. Note that most DRLs don’t activate the taillights, so this is a headlight-specific advantage.
3. DRLs keep you from driving at dawn/dusk/night/in poor weather without lights. This is a DRL-specific advantage, although it also exists in vehicles with auto headlights. If your car always has lights on or can turn them on for you, you won’t get caught driving in low light conditions without them, which both increases your safety and eliminates the risk of being pulled over for driving without headlights at night.
What if I don’t have DRLs? Are headlights as effective?
Yes! If your vehicle doesn’t come with DRLs, you can get the same effect, and often a better one, by running your low-beams all day long. Low beams are often brighter than DRLs, which gives you an additional visibility benefit, in terms of your ability to be seen, while driving during the day time. As noted above, using your headlights instead of DRLs also offers the advantage of having lit taillights, which can reduce your risk of being rear-ended during the daytime.
What do the stats and research say about DRL effectiveness?
The statistics show that DRLs provide a safety benefit that increases with the amount of darkness in an area. Estimates of multiple-vehicle crash reduction benefits have ranged from zero percent to 3% to 5% to 7%, depending on the study. Scandinavian countries show 3x the benefits from them than the US, ostensibly due to light level differences.
Given the fact that half of all auto fatalities in the US are due to multiple-vehicle collisions, any factor that can reduce their prevalence is worth considering, particularly when such factors are built into every vehicle on the road (through headlights if not through DRL systems).
If DRLs are helpful, why aren’t they required in the US? And what’s their history?
That’s a great question, and the answer, as is often the case, is political. They’re required in Canada and in many countries in Europe; Canada made them required for vehicles manufactured after December 1989, while the European Union put DRLs into law for cars and small vans after February 2011. They originated in the Scandinavian countries, which have very short days during the winter season. Sweden made them required in 1977, followed by Norway in 1986, Iceland two years later, Denmark two years after that, and Finland in 1997.
The US will likely make them a requirement someday, but there are likely a lot of lobbyists to be overcome first. When keeping in mind obvious safety features that aren’t required, remember that side airbags also aren’t legally required in the US yet, and that vehicles like the Jeep Wrangler continue to be sold without them.
What about my bulb life and fuel economy? Will I burn through bulbs or get poorer gas mileage with DRLs?
In most cases, you aren’t going to get a significantly shorter bulb life or significantly worse fuel economy while using DRLs or headlights. Low beams typically use a bit more energy than DRLs, but the effects are still negligible. If you really want long bulb life, you’ll want to switch to HID or LED bulbs over your OEM bulbs anyway. Furthermore, per NHTSA estimates, only a fraction of an mpg is lost when headlights or DRLs are used in most cases. The safety advantages far outweigh any potential losses.
The Infiniti Q70, which is also known as the Nissan Fuga overseas, is the current flagship of Infiniti, the luxury division of Nissan. The Q70 is basically a renaming of the long-running Infiniti M, and comes with FWD and AWD versions like its full-sized luxury sedan competitors, including the Mercedes-Benz E-Class, Audi A6, BMW 5 Series, Volvo S80, Volvo S90, Acura RLX, and Lexus GS.
Like the vehicles it competes with, the Q70 hits the ground running with a range of top notch crash scores and safety features, including side airbags and ESC, as well as frontal crash protection in the latest models. As a result,even if you aren’t an executive or business-type, the Q70 is worth considering if you’re a parent interested in one of the safest sedans money can buy. As a result, I got up close and personal with the latest generations of the Q70 to see just how car-seat friendly it would be for interested families.
Before looking at which car seats did and didn’t fit in the Q70 in 3 across setups, it’s worth reviewing a bit of car safety, in terms of which kinds of seats to use and when.
For me, the most basic and essential part of car seat safety involves rear-facing. It’s the safest position we know of, and the longer our kids rear-face, the safer they’ll be, regardless of what kind of vehicle they travel in. I recommend keeping children in rear-facing infant or convertible seats as long as possible (ideally until 4!), then keeping them harnessed in forward-facing seats for several years more (ideally until 8!), and then only switching them out of booster seats when they pass the 5 step test (which typically happens between 10 and 12). The goal is to keep kids in the safest kinds of seats for as long as possible to increase their odds of surviving serious car crashes.
With that all in mind, I got to work with my seats to create what I believe to be the most detailed 3 across guide for the Infiniti Q70 on the Internet. If you find the list helpful when shopping for car seats, you can shop through my Amazon link below. I’ll add more seats as I test them over time.
The current generation Q70 / M is 194 inches long and just under 72 inches wide, which gives you a decent, though not the greatest, amount of interior room to work with for many 3 across situations. Due to the substantial doors and padding in the Q70 interior (for safety and comfort), the back row isn’t the widest, but it’ll often be wide enough as long as you’re willing to use your seat belts instead of LATCH for the installation. Remember that seat belts are as safe as LATCH, and in some cases, safer, depending on the weight limits of your car seats.
Because the Q70 isn’t one of the longest vehicles out there as far as luxury sedans go, you might find yourself compromised on front-to-back space, especially if you’ve got taller drivers or passengers. If you’re interested in which safe seats take up the least space, you’ll definitely want to check out my front-to-back comparison chart for rear-facing convertibles.
The 2006-2010 generation M (e.g., the M35, M45) ranged from 193-194 inches long and just under 71 inches wide, making it a more challenging vehicle to use in 3 across setups than the succeeding generation, although you can certainly get a wide variety of seats in it with seat belt installations (LATCH will just rob you of back row space). Remember that it’s okay if your seats are touching after an installation as long as each seat is independently tight (a seat should not become loose if an adjacent seat is removed).
Joshua Brown, 40, from Canton, Ohio, died on May 7th, 2016 at 3:40 PM in Williston, Florida, due to a collision between his 2015 Tesla Model S operating in “Autopilot” mode and a semi-trailer driven by Frank Baressi, 62. Brown died at the scene, while Baressi was uninjured.
How:
Per Florida Highway Patrol reports, the crash occurred on US 27A, a divided highway. The semi was north-east-bound while the Model S was south-west-bound and traveling with “Autopilot”, a semi-autonomous driving mode, activated. The semi turned left in front of the car, and the car continued to travel at an estimated speed of 65 mph into and underneath the trailer at a broadside angle (i.e., a side underride). Tesla’s electronic records indicate the brakes were not applied by either the vehicle or the driver, and that none of the features of the car detected the semi in front of the vehicle.
The windshield was penetrated and the roof was torn off at impact, and the driver was presumably killed at this time. The car continued beneath the trailer, staying east-bound on the roadway, until eventually leaving it on the right side (south shoulder) and striking multiple fences and a power pole, before ending 100 feet away from the highway.
The driver of the semi stated that Brown was watching a film (Harry Potter) at the time of the crash. He later clarified that he had not seen the film, but had heard it. The police later discovered a portable DVD in the vehicle, but did not note whether it had been playing at the time of the collision.
Tesla blogged about the crash in late June, shortly before the NHTSA publicized its intent to launch a preliminary evaluation of the Autopilot system. They stated that Autopilot camera didn’t notice the trailer due to the color of the trailer (white) and the brightness of the day, leading to the vehicle not applying the brakes. Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, added that the vehicle’s radar did not see the trailer because it was designed to ignore objects that resembled overhead road signs (i.e., the height of the trailer fooled the system into ignoring it). They ultimately placed responsibility on the driver, noting that the system was a semi-autonomous one and was not designed to replace actual driving behaviors.
Why:
A side underride guard (standard in the EU) could have significantly mitigated the severity of this collision.
This is an unfortunate case that has sent ripples through the Tesla and autonomous driving communities, and for good reason. I’ve written about underride collisions before, and my reaction to this crash is no different in this respect: regardless of whether responsibility should be handed to the driver of the Tesla (who was inattentive enough to have not made any attempt at braking the vehicle or steering it out of the path of the semi trailer), the driver of the semi (who is being judged at fault most strongly by the Tesla community under the tenet in US traffic law that a vehicle that does not yield to a vehicle with the right of way is generally automatically responsible in a collision), or the Tesla and its designers (due to the inability of the vehicle to detect a massive and massively dangerous roadway obstacle), I firmly believe the ultimate responsibility rests with our government’s refusal to mandate side underride guards and stronger rear underride guards, as is the case in the European Union.
Trucks in the EU are required to have rear and side underride guards, dramatically reducing underride injury and fatality rates compared to in the US.
In the US, they are known as RUPS (Rear Underrun Protection System), FUPS (Front Underrun Protection System), and SUPS (Side Underrun Protection System). In this case, the SUPS was the relevant guard missing, which was unfortunately to be expected, since, unlike RUPS, they aren’t required in the United States.
While such guards may not have prevented the collision (Brown was apparently unaware that he was being driven into a semi-trailer, and the Autopilot may have been unable to “see” a white underride guard, given its blindness to a white trailer), it would almost certainly have reduced the impact of the collision, and perhaps have done so to the point where the underride might have been avoided or mitigated to survivable levels.
The vehicle and drivers were (also) both at fault
Beyond the need for comprehensive side and rear underride guards, I completely agree that Brown (and Baressi) should have been paying greater attention while driving. An outspoken proponent of the Model S and Tesla company, Brown made a number of YouTube videos within which he discussed his appreciation of the Model S’ Autopilot feature, and even credited it with saving him from a crash shortly before his death.
Unfortunately, the system he trusted with his life was eventually partly responsible for claiming it. This was a complete failure of the Autopilot system; any system incapable of seeing an effectively stopped, massive, life-threatening road obstacle is not a system that should not be made massively available to the driving population. While the Autopilot documentation repeatedly states that the driver must remain ready to take control, the truth of human nature is that people have, do, and will continue to try to get away with as much as they see safely possible. Tesla dared its drivers to take this risk while hiding behind legalese about the need to avoid this risk. This is unacceptable.
Tesla additionally intimated that despite the failure of Autopilot here, Teslas equipped with activated Autopilot were still safer than any other group of driver-driven vehicles:
This is the first known fatality in just over 130 million miles where Autopilot was activated. Among all vehicles in the US, there is a fatality every 94 million miles. Worldwide, there is a fatality approximately every 60 million miles.
Unfortunately, this claim rings hollow, even if technically accurate, due to the extremely controlled conditions under which Autopilot is activated by Tesla drivers (by a self-selected community of generally educated, wealthy, and older individuals and almost exclusively on divided highways, which have the lowest fatality rates per mile of any large driving environment in the US), compared to the general battlefield of drivers, vehicles, and roadways throughout the country (and world). It isn’t a fair comparison.
Additionally, due to the vanishingly small sample size used, it’s also at risk of being debunked and openly ridiculed at any moment. If only 1 Autopilot fatality has occurred in 130 million miles of activation, a second fatality tomorrow would drop the ratio to 1 per 65 million miles, a statistic that would make the Autopilot 31% more dangerous than not buying or driving a Tesla, but driving whatever you wanted and on whatever road you wanted, on average. It would make an Autopiloted Tesla virtually identical in risk to that of the average driver throughout the globe. A third AP fatality would drop the ratio to 1 in 43 million, making an AP Tesla more than twice as dangerous as the average driver / vehicle combination in the US and 40% more dangerous than the average global driver. This isn’t the kind of math Tesla wants to get itself into.
I have no doubt that autonomous driving, in general, will be far, far safer than human-led driving once the technology is mature and widely available. However, what Tesla is pushing isn’t autonomous driving. To be fair, Tesla doesn’t claim that it is. But until they have it available, half measures can be far more dangerous than the real thing or nothing. A little knowledge can get you into a lot of trouble. You can’t jump a cliff halfway. This is one of those areas where an “all or nothing” approach is much safer than a system that lulls people into a false sense of security.
We still need underride guards
As I’ve written before, and will continue to write in every underride crash until the US brings its underride guard regulations into the 21st century, it is essential to repeat that this crash was preventable, but that virtually no passenger vehicle exists that would have protected him at the speeds at which he likely crashed, as the significant marker of trailer underride crashes is that the part that results in death–the trailer itself–is above the crash-absorbing structures of virtually every vehicle on the road. This is proven true yet again, regardless of whatever marketing Tesla will likely continue to push about the S (and X, and 3) being the safest vehicles in their class. It’s not about the vehicles; it’s about the guards.
Fern Thedford, 6 months, died on the afternoon of Tuesday, June 21st, 2016, in Melissa, Texas (approximately 40 miles north of Dallas) due to heat stroke. The heat stroke occurred due to her having been forgotten in a 2011-era Honda Odyssey outside the family home.
Michael Shannon Thedford, 33, Fern’s father, was charged with manslaughter due to leaving her in the family vehicle, where she ultimately passed away. He was held on $20,000 bond, which he posted and was released.
How
Per various reports, Thedford, a substitute teacher at Melissa High School, dropped Fern’s siblings, a 5-year old and 3-year old, at a local daycare at around 9 AM before returning home with his infant daughter. Temperatures at the time outside the vehicle were approximately 90 degrees Fahrenheit.
Per Thedford, he forgot his daughter in the vehicle due to a change in routine; his daughter had developed a fever the night before and could not attend daycare the following day. He parked in front of the house and went inside for a nap, and did not wake for at least 3 hours. He discovered his daughter was missing, and found her unconscious in the vehicle, describing her as “hot as a brick”. In efforts to lower her temperature, he took her indoors and placed her in the refrigerator for a certain amount of time, and then called 911 (at around 1:30 PM). His wife returned home from work and they attempted to revive their daughter via CPR, but were unsuccessful.
Deputies were called to the home at approximately 1:30 PM and discovered the child as unresponsive. Firefighters and paramedics arrived and left, followed by detectives. Thedford described how he had forgotten his daughter to them with a doll. He was later arrested and charged, and then released after posting bond. Todd Shapiro, Thedford’s attorney, described the father’s behavior as negligent but not reckless, per the law.
The official high that day in North Texas was 98 degrees, making it the hottest day of the year thus far.
Why
The story of children dying after being forgotten in hot vehicles (sometimes termed in the media “forgotten baby syndrome”, and more accurately known as “heat stroke” or “vehicular heat stroke”) is unfortunately a common one in the United States, especially in the warmer months of the year. This tragedy involved a 6 month old girl, Fern Thedforth, who was unfortunately a victim of her father’s forgetfulness.
The facts as laid out in this case seem rather straightforward; Thedforth took all 3 of his kids to daycare, but forgot to bring his youngest in with him upon his return. He stated the change in routine led to his forgetting her, which is entirely possible; he was used to dropping off all 3 children, and simply presumed he had done so by the time he’d arrived home. Six month olds aren’t talking yet, and are prone to falling asleep during car rides; it’s entirely possible she hadn’t made a sound when he left her inside, and once he’d left the vehicle (which was parked outdoors) and entered his home, his odds of hearing her would have been reduced to zero. Unfortunately, he also chose to take a nap at the time, and essentially sealed her fate.
Fridge?
His decision to attempt to place her in the fridge upon discovering her in the van may have seemed foolish, but in a moment of panic, was understandable. In situations involving heat stroke and hypothermia, the priority is to lower the body’s temperature to safe levels as quickly as safely possible; immersion in cold water, ice baths, and ice packs are standard recommendations. Would it have been been better to have called 911 first? Absolutely. However, without having direct access to the medical records present, it’s impossible to know how close to death Fern was by the time she had been retrieved from the vehicle; there comes a point (i.e., organ failure) where the effects of heat stroke can no longer be reversed.
Context
This sad scenario occurs far too often in the US. Noheatstroke counts Fern’s death as the 16th child vehicular heat stroke fatality of 2016 so far, and there were 24 in total in 2015. On average, since 1998, there have been 37 deaths per year, with 2010 being the “worst” year at 49 deaths, and 2015 being the best. Each death is too many.
A number of factors in Fern’s death are echoed in the statistics of these tragedies in the US. She was forgotten by her caregiver, which has been the case in 54% of deaths in the last 18 years. Over half of child vehicular heat stroke deaths involved children younger than 2, and 32%, or one out of every 3 deaths, involved children younger than 1, which was also the case here. Of the 16 deaths so far this year, 3 have occurred in Texas, more than in any state besides Louisiana, which has also seen 3 deaths.
Prevention
Every one of these tragedies are preventable. As a parent, the most important priority has to be the child. Things Thedford could have done to have prevented forgetting Fern involve making a point to check each of the car seats before leaving the vehicle, or texting a picture of Fern to his wife after getting home. Having a planned activity involving his daughter for the day, since he knew she would not be attending daycare, could also have kept her alive.
35,000 Americans will die this year on the road. You don't have to be one of them. A car seat and car safety blog to promote best practices for families.
2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 Audi A3
When it comes to driving, there are four main ways to keep yourself and the ones you love safe on the road: 1. Avoiding driving entirely, 2. limiting driving, 3. driving safely, and 4. driving safe vehicles. Much like reducing, reusing, and recycling, the earlier actions are more effective than the later actions.
2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 Infiniti Q70 / M (Y51)
2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 Infiniti M (Y50)
Who:
Who