Car Safety
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Night vision systems for cars have been around for several years but they're still a rarity among mainstream models. That's starting to change and Volkswagen is the latest mainstream brand to introduce the tech. VW is introducing it as an available feature in its redesigned Touareg SUV, which sadly isn't coming to the United States. (We get the Atlas instead.) An infrared camera integrated at the front of the vehicle picks up heat coming from a living organism. It can detect animals or pedestrians more than 400 feet away and shows them as a highlighted yellow object in the digital instrument...
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Rust will compromise your car's safety in a crash
Rust is never a good thing on a car. Though many simply see rust as a cosmetic issue or an eyesore, the problems go much deeper. Swedish insurance company Folksam and the homeowner organization Villaägarnas Riksförbund published a video showing how much rust compromises a car's...
Sean Szymkowski -
Jaguar Land Rover developing system that lets cars 'see' around corners
Thanks to modern communications and sensor technology, it will soon be possible for cars to know what's immediately around them even when the line of site is blocked, in a sense making them able to see around corners. This ability is one of the core pillars of most self-driving systems being...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
There's a recall notice for the Pagani Huayra
This story isn't for you. It's for the handful of people out there who own Pagani Huayra coupes and roadsters, including the track-focused BC. There's a recall notice owners need to be made aware of, and it covers all 16 examples of the Pagani supercar produced in 2017 that have made it into the...
Jeff Glucker -
Arizona blocks Uber from testing self-driving cars on state's roads
Arizona on Monday blocked Uber from conducting further tests of self-driving cars on the state's roads as a result of last week's fatal crash involving a pedestrian and one of the test cars. In a letter sent to Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi and shared with Bloomberg, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey said...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Here's how Formula 1's Halo affects visibility
A major talking point for the 2018 Formula 1 World Championship has been the introduction of the Halo driver protection system. You've just seen the drivers race with it during Sunday's Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, and the affect it has on driver vision to how it holds up in the event of an...
Jeff Glucker -
Mercedes-AMG's 577-horsepower GT R is taking over from the GT S as Formula 1's official safety car. AMG has been supplying safety cars for F1 since 1996. The GT R will be the fastest yet, however, with its top speed clocked at 197 mph. The car is also the most powerful safety car in F1 history. The safety car's job is to lead the field on warm-up laps and also come out if there's an accident or bad weather. The main modification is the light bar on the roof, which AMG's designers have attached to a wind tunnel-tested carbon fiber scoop for optimal aerodynamics. But because F1 cars often need...
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Ford rolling out Co-Pilot360 active safety systems as standard on most vehicles
Ford will join a handful of other automakers in making many active safety features standard through a suite of technologies bundled in what the automaker calls Co-Pilot360. The automaker announced on Thursday that the 2019 Ford Edge and Edge ST to be released this fall will be the first vehicles to...
Sean Szymkowski -
Hyundai Mobis introduces world's first panorama sunroof airbags
Hyundai Mobis, a long-time South Korea automotive supplier with obvious ties to Hyundai, introduced a world-first piece of safety equipment this past Saturday. Feast your eyes on the very first production panorama sunroof airbag. The airbag covers the almost the entire open portion of a panoramic...
Sean Szymkowski -
Aston Martin recalls over 5,000 cars in US
Aston Martin has issued a pair of recalls that affect a significant portion of its customers in the United States as over 5,000 cars are involved. The more concerning of the recalls deals with the 6-speed automatic transmission fitted to 3,493 cars made up of the following models: 2009-2016 Aston...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Chevy Tahoe Police Pursuit Vehicle adds safety tech
While the police work to keep us safe, automakers are interested in the safety of the officers. General Motors has announced a slate of new safety features for its updated 2018 Chevy Tahoe Police Pursuit Vehicle, and all of them work together to make daily driving duty a potentially safer task...
Jeff Glucker -
BMW issues stop-sale order and recall on all i3 electric cars
BMW last week issued a stop-sale order and recall for every i3 in the United States, meaning from the 2014 model up to the present 2018 car. A total 30,542 cars are affected. The cause? It seems that in a recent round of testing, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration determined that a...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Nissan's revealed its major debut for the 2017 Tokyo Motor Show with the IMx self-driving electric SUV concept. While the brand covered many of the technical details with its reveal, it saved one last thing for a separate presentation. Nissan's future electric cars will sing a song, a song called "Canto." In an effort to heighten pedestrian safety, since electric cars are relatively silent compared to those powered by an internal combustion engine, Nissan's Canto will become the official sound of the brand's electric cars. Nissan calls the sound "energizing" and "confident." We think it...
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Nissan wants to fight dehydration with sweat-sensing seats
The consequences of driving under the influence of alcohol are well documented. However, there's something much more common that happens every single day: driving while not properly hydrated. Nissan wants to help combat dehydrated driving and teamed up with Droog, a Dutch design brand, to create a...
Sean Szymkowski -
2017 Alfa Romeo Giulia scores best safety rating from IIHS
Alfa Romeo’s Giulia has been shown to be one of the safest options in its class. The small luxury sedan aced the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s latest round of testing, for which it achieved the institute’s highest rating of "Top Safety Pick+." To earn the Top Safety...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Ford loves patents and just added one for active thigh support
Ford has been on quite the patent kick as of late. The Blue Oval has recently filed patents for odd steering wheels, an interesting integrated bike rack, a system for a removable steering wheel and pedal box, and even a self-leveling cupholder. Ford is looking to bring some innovative new features...
Jeff Glucker -
2018 Armada is first Nissan with video-streaming rearview mirror
Nissan is the latest automaker to introduce a video-streaming rearview mirror, which the Japanese automaker is calling an Intelligent Rearview Mirror (I-RVM). We first saw the technology introduced by Cadillac on the 2016 CT6. What it is, essentially, is a traditional rearview mirror with an...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Study shows taller guardrails could save lives
Motorists likely take it for granted, but countless hours of engineering and research go into planning even some of the most mundane components of our transportation system. That includes guardrails lining thousands of miles of U.S. roads. A recent study shows said guardrails may be due for a...
Sean Szymkowski -
Formula One cars will have to be fitted with the Halo cockpit protection system starting from the 2018 World Championship, motorsport’s organizing body, the FIA, has decided. While it had seemed that the competing Shield design was the more popular option, the FIA said on Wednesday that the Halo was picked because it presented the best overall safety performance. The Halo, first proposed by Mercedes AMG, consists of a tubular carbon structure mounted over the cockpit. Because of the proximity of the central strut to the driver, it has little effect on visibility. Red Bull Racing was one...
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Ferrari starts testing F1’s Shield cockpit protection system
Formula One organizers along with the FIA came out with the statement in April that a Shield was the preferred cockpit protection solution to be introduced for the 2018 World Championship, as opposed to the previously preferred Halo solution which teams started testing in 2016. During...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Tesla hits back at IIHS after Model S falls short in latest crash tests
The Tesla Model S has consistently ranked at the top of independent crash tests since its debut earlier this decade, leading to its reputation as one of the safest cars in production. However, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety only gave the electric sedan an “Acceptable” rating...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Here's how those sinkholes that sometimes swallow cars actually form
A sinkhole is a devastating, geological assassin. It arrives seemingly out of nowhere and can cause serious destruction to roadways, homes and cars. But how does such a dangerous situation manifest right below our feet and tires? It's mostly related to water. This video provides a great visual...
Jeff Glucker -
Troubled airbag manufacturer Takata files for bankruptcy
Troubled Japanese parts supplier Takata has filed for bankruptcy protection in Japan and the United States. Takata’s debts have spiraled to an estimated $9 billion due to the massive recall program for defective airbags supplied to almost two dozen automakers and used in an estimated 100...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Mercedes-Benz details suite of active safety features coming to 2018 S-Class
The 2018 Mercedes-Benz S-Class ushers in refreshed looks, new powertrains, and a repackaged interior, but the changes go further than skin deep. Specifically, Mercedes is ratcheting up the active safety features with the S-Class' mid-cycle refresh. The nervous system of the entire driver assistance...
Sean Szymkowski