Category: Safety Topics

  • September 24th, 2014

Heading out into the woods for a four-wheeling drive with a passenger in tow may soon be a thing of the past. The Consumer Product Safety Commission is considering new rules that would prohibit passengers from being carried on all-terrain vehicles, or ATVs. The request comes following a three-year study that showed passengers account for […]

  • September 10th, 2014

Regulations governing Google’s experimental self-driving cars will come into effect on California’s roads starting 16 September. They have driven more than 1 million kilometers since the company started secretly developing them in 2009, but they have been tested only once by a government body on open roads—by Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) officials in May 2012. IEEE Spectrum has […]

  • September 5th, 2014

Choosing the right car seat is high on the list for any new parent, and every parent plans to leave the hospital with a newborn securely buckled up in a car seat. But as kids grow up, using a car seat or booster seat may feel more like an option rather than a requirement. By […]

  • September 3rd, 2014

Much has been made of smart cars’ potential to dramatically reduce the millions of automobile collisions that occur each year and the tens of thousands of fatalities that result from these crashes. But collision avoidance is only one of the benefits that giving cars bigger brains will yield. According to a report released on 28 August by the Intelligent Transportation Society […]

  • September 2nd, 2014

It looks like General Motors could be taking a big step to creating safer, semi-autonomous cars. Japanese manufacturer Takata, who supplies GM with safety parts, has inked a deal with Australian company Seeing Machines to create sensors that will detect distracted driving, according to a company news release. The deal is set to last for 15 years. […]

  • September 2nd, 2014

Companies like Tesla and Google have their eyes on self-driving cars. But while humans are still behind the wheel, General Motors is turning to eye-tracking, facial recognition tech to make the streets a bit safer. The Financial Times reports GM is planning to install machines in about half a million cars that will track drivers’ eye and head movements to […]

  • August 28th, 2014

More than 30,000 Americans are killed in highway crashes each year, but experts believe that death toll could sink to zero as safety improvements continue and autonomous cars hit the road. A sign of that possibility will come with the release of a new study next month by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, which […]

  • August 20th, 2014

Drive on a city’s streets at night and you’re guided by artificial lights: glowing traffic signals beckoning you forward, the headlights of a car trailing you, a sign warning of work ahead. Artificial lights may soon guide your car, too: In the quest for cars that understand the world around them and respond intelligently, a […]