Car Safety

When the news of Saab being splintered from General Motors' holdings, many lamented the demise of the Swedish carmaker, assuming it would be unable to stand alone. But a new parts sharing agreement between Saab and General Motors offers some hope that the brand born from jets might yet live to fly...

Research from a Swedish medical institute has led to some surprising conclusions about alcohol and driving: that the most damage caused in accidents where alcohol is a factor comes from a greater number of drivers with moderate alcohol consumption rather than the small percentage of extremely...

Crash testing brand-new vehicles may rub the Puritan ethic the wrong way, but it's the only sure way to find out just what a car is capable of in terms of protecting its occupants. Today a new round of testing by the IIHS reveals how the first batch of small SUVs holds up under new roof-strength...

No stone is being left unturned in carmakers' hunt for more and better safety technology, and Toyota is often at or near the forefront of that search. Today the company has released a new system: the world's first rear-seat center airbag. Designed to protect occupants in a side-impact from...

Safety tech is progressing in every field imaginable, especially with the aid of computers and telematics. But what if you don't want to fork over for the latest vehicle to get the ability to track your teen's driving? Hammacher Schlemmer has the answer. Innocuously named the Driving Activity...

Beating Toyota and Honda at their own game is no easy thing, but Ford's done it with the Escape, taking top rankings in safety and fuel efficiency against the RAV-4 and CR-V. For 2010, Ford's taking steps to help expand that lead by adding five new safety features to the Escape. Keeping teens from...

Toyota already offers one of the world’s most advanced pre-crash safety systems for several of its high-end models, such as the Japanese-market Crown sedan and Lexus LS flagship, but the company has set out to improve its system by adding several new features. Simply called Pre-crash Safety...

Starting this year, all new cars assessed under the Euro NCAP scheme will have to be fitted with some form of electronic stability control (ESC) in order to gain a rating of five stars. This puts the Euro NCAP scheme at the forefront of crash testing, though some other regions are also making...

Despite being some of the biggest vehicles on the road today, three top-selling pickup trucks have earned very low scores in the latest round of crash safety testing conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). The worst performers were the crew-cab versions of the Chevrolet...

Smashing cars into one another is a great thing for testing safety systems, but it's expensive. Since frugality is the new theme in Detroit, cutting out excess crash testing has opened the door to more creative solutions. Enter the balloon car, Ford's $10,000 answer to continued crash testing...

Everyone has experienced it at some time in their night-driving life: the jerk with the ridiculously bright headlights that makes it impossible to see the road ahead. It's more than a mere annoyance, it's a genuine road hazard, and as vehicles have grown taller and lights brighter, the problem is...

Major carmakers are rushing to develop a new generation of plug-in hybrid vehicles including industry giants Toyota and GM, which hope to have the technology ready for sale by the end of the decade. GM appears to have the lead at the moment, forming a partnership with LG Chem to develop and...

The incidence of drivers going the wrong way up expressway ramps in Japan is apparently high enough to merit a specific effort to combat its occurrence. Nissan is working on a system that combines GPS location, a map database and an advanced telematic computer system to warn drivers if they attempt...

Three famous Italian automotive firms have joined forces to bring a new “Cyber Tire” to the market. While tire pressure monitoring systems have become commonplace on all but the most entry-level cars, these companies are working on a self-powered microchip-based system that reports...

Lexus today announced an all-new dedicated hybrid model for its lineup in the form of the HS 250h. The HS fits between the current IS and ES models and is designed to make luxury hybrids more affordable. According to the company almost 60% of entry level luxury car buyers would consider a hybrid...

Increasing the burden on the car industry through government regulation is the last thing anyone wants right now, as it would undo the work being done in Detroit and Washington to realign current operations with future market conditions. That's why the NHTSA has decided to delay its introduction of...

Factory-installed options such as blind spot warning systems, park-assist radars and automatic headlights are often only available on luxury cars, and that too at a premium price. Now, French automotive parts supplier Valeo has unveiled a range of new driving and parking assistance devices that can...

As advanced as cars are becoming in terms of safety aids, nothing can make up for a skillful, attentive driver behind the wheel - yet, at least. Volvo has launched a research program to study how normal drivers react to tough traffic situations in the hopes of improving their cars' safety. The data...

We've all heard the argument for why someone drives that big SUV instead of a fuel-sipping mini-car on their epic two-hour commute: crash safety. And while there's a good bit of sense to that point, at least from the SUV driver's perspective, small cars are improving their safety marks according to...

We've all heard the phrase 'speed kills', and it's been widely applied to situations both apt and not. A recent study conducted by the NHTSA examining over 5,400 crashes across a nearly three-year period presents some evidence that excessive speed, while it may cause more serious injuries, is not a...