Car Safety

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) today released its annual list of vehicles that had earned the agency’s coveted 'Top Safety Pick' award, revealing that some major milestones had been achieved. According to the president of the IIHS, Adrian Lund, "Top Safety Pick winners are...

Fujitsu has developed a new video-processing technology that enables drivers to see a complete wraparound view of their vehicle's perimeter, in real time. The new driver assistance technology adapts to different driving situations, enabling the driver to view the entire surroundings of a vehicle...

The second CAR2CAR Forum at a testing ground in Dudenhofen, Germany, was the site of a new step forward in vehicle-to-vehicle communications systems. Among several other European carmakers, Audi presented a system that is able to interoperate with vehicles from other companies. The CAR2CAR Forum is...

Earlier this year we reported on a vehicle-to-vehicle communications system being developed by a consortium of European manufacturers, and now Toyota and Honda have joined the growing ranks of carmakers working on the future safety technology. The two carmakers have now announced plans to show off...

Safety technology is going increasingly high-tech as companies and governments get into the business of making cars ever safer. Advanced features like radar are making their way into everyday cars, evidenced by a report that Mazda will begin including its Rear Vehicle Monitoring System (RVMS) as a...

The Corvette ZR-1, any number of Ferraris, a and choice selection of the finest automobiles from Italy, Germany and elsewhere - these are fine company, and soon more affordable sports cars could be joining these ranks, at least in terms of brakes. Brembo has this week announced the purchase of the...

Earlier we reported on Volkswagen's new Car-2-Car communications system, which is being developed by a consortium of various European manufacturers, including BMW, Daimler, Renault, Fiat and Audi. BMW has now revealed that it could use the technology in its future vehicles, however stressed that...

Volkswagen is claiming to have reached an automotive milestone today as tests begin on its Car-2-Car communications system. The system aims to increase the levels of communications between cars of all makes and models eventually, and to hopefully improve road safety. The enlistment of a number of...

As the EU ramps up its Intelligent Car Initiative, more and more carmakers are coming forward with car-to-car communications systems and advanced collision avoidance systems to help guide traffic and reduce accidents. Nissan's system is among the latest to be displayed, coming on the heels of a...

A company in the Netherlands has developed a new camera-based monitoring system that can drastically improve road safety for drivers at a relatively low cost. Mobileye Vision Technologies has created a small camera that mounts behind a car’s rear-view-mirror, and looks out to the road ahead...

Building a vehicle that can react to the most minute changes in grip and stability, compensate for them and alert the driver of the situation has become almost the standard of the industry. Carmakers are now looking for ways to push beyond the simple traction control/stability control paradigm and...

New York City may have to backpedal on its recently introduced legislation that mandates all new taxis to be either hybrids or have fuel economy of at least 25mpg (9.4L/100km). The reasoning is that by state law taxis are also required to have partitions installed between the driver and the...

Teenagers are one of the highest-risk segments of the driving public due to inexperience behind the wheel. Now a new study in the UK has shown that getting several teenagers together in a car can make the problem even greater, as much as tripling the risk of a fatal accident. According to the...

GM announced late last year that its OnStar system would be getting a new feature that could remotely bring a car to a rolling stop in emergency situations. Now that technology has begun to arrive, with the launch of the Stolen Vehicle Slowdown feature across its 2009 model lineup in the U.S. and...

In its efforts to improve vehicle safety, especially amongst teenage drivers, Ford has announced plans to introduce its new ‘MyKey’ vehicle control system. Designed to help parents encourage their teenage children to drive safer and more fuel efficiently, MyKey will debut next year as...

The car industry has been dreading increases in the required roof strength of their cars for years now. The current regulations are holdovers from decades past, and safety advocates are calling for new standards that would dramatically improve safety, though the industry fears the high costs that...

Bees are not the first animal most people would think of when looking to the biological world for automotive inspiration, but the engineers at Nissan are uncommon people. Those engineers are developing a collision avoidance system based around the same principles that bees use to navigate their...

The European Commission has announced plans to make it mandatory for all new cars to be fitted with daytime running lights (DRLs) as standard from 2011, and on trucks and buses one and a half years later. Despite widespread opposition from carmakers, the issue was raised once again on the back of...

Most carmakers are focusing their efforts solely on reducing the tailpipe emissions of their vehicle lineups through conventional methods such as more efficient engines, advanced catalysts and lighter cars. Attacking vehicle emissions from a different angle, Audi is adding a new traffic management...

While driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs has long been demonized by safety groups and the government, it turns out a much more dangerous vice is lurking on our roads - text messaging. Research carried out by the UK's Transport Research Laboratory confirms what common sense tells us -...