Volvo Wants Uncrashable Car by 2020

We've written before about technologies being developed to help cars avoid collisions, but now Volvo wants to build and sell a hyper-safe uncrashable vehicle by 2020.

Known for its long safety record, Volvo was the brand behind such innovations as side-impact air bags, crumple zones, the three-point seat belt and rear-facing child seats, as well as more recent introductions like frontal crash warnings and blind spot sensors. Now the carmaker wants to extend its safety legacy by creating what amounts to an invisible bumper — a sonar shell that surrounds the vehicle and feeds information to a central computer. If the car senses a threat, it can take control of the vehicle and, where human error might cause an accident, pilot the car either to safety or at least a less-devastating impact.

According to Volvo, reducing a car's pre-impact speed by even 9 mph would reduce road deaths by half.

Volvo's 2020 Vision: The Injury-Proof Car (The New York Times)

How Long is Too Long to Leave a Child in a Car?

Many a parent has faced this dilemma: You need to hop out of the car to get cash from the ATM or run inside to pay for your gas, but there's your child sound asleep in the car seat. Do you keep one eye on the tyke, dash in and dash back out? Or do you rouse the infant and take him or her along for a cranky ride?

An Illinois woman recently found out the hard way what kind of penalties can result from this practice when she was arrested and charged with child endangerment for leaving her 2-year-old daughter in the car while she dropped money into a Salvation Army kettle.

The charges were dropped, but incensed mothers came down on both sides of the issue, some in defense of the woman — who was gone for only minutes — and others who saw the potential for danger in the situation.

Safety groups like Kids and Cars advocate taking the child or children with you no matter the situation. Last year, 232 children died in non-moving vehicular accidents (although this included those who had climbed into a car of their own accord), and so far in 2008 the tally is 36.

With summer on the way, the most crucial thing for parents to remember is how quickly a car can heat up. The temperature can rise 19 degrees in less than 10 minutes, and even a brief trip to the ATM can be potentially deadly.

Parents Weigh the Risks of Leaving Kids in Cars (Chicago Sun-Times)

Mazda Disposes of $100 Million Worth of Cars

What do you do with more than 4,000 cars that you can neither sell nor safely give away?

This was the conundrum facing Mazda after a cargo ship called the Cougar Ace tilted at a severe angle before being rescued by a remarkable salvage operation.

Mazda couldn’t tell if the vehicles had been damaged, but the possibility that corrosive fluids had harmed the cars was too great a risk. Even donating the cars would have created messy liability issues — say if an airbag failed to deploy or something else went wrong mechanically.

The issue of damaged cars on the market played out recently when, after Hurricane Katrina, hundreds of cars were salvaged from the devastation, slapped with a coat of paint and resold in Latin America, where buyers later found incredible amounts of sand and water damage.

Mazda has decided to build a disassembly line in Portland, Ore., where the cars will be broken down piece by piece. Wheels and CD players will be removed and destroyed, platinum will be yanked from the catalytic converters, and all metal will be crushed, shredded and sent back to Japan for recycling. All told, that's an estimated $100 million worth of automobiles done in because they spent a few weeks angled incorrectly.

A Crushing Issue: How to Destroy Brand New Cars (Autoweek)

Study Says Lighter, Smaller Cars Can Still Be Plenty Safe

When going to buy a car, most people instinctively think bigger equals safer. This is not necessarily the case, according to a report issued by the Rocky Mountain Institute.

The report, titled "Triple Safety," points out that cars have dynamic components, and it's not as simple as saying a lighter object will lose to a heavier object. Though the laws of physics would suggest this, cars are not simple objects. Equipped with structural advantages like crush zones that can absorb an impact, cars that make use of certain materials can be just as safe as their larger counterparts.

In addition, these small vehicles constructed with light-weight aluminum, other composite materials, or those forged with nanotechnology, can be lighter and more fuel efficient. As automakers move toward the new 2015 fuel economy goal, they'll have this concept in mind, but it's also important that consumers understand it as well.

Lighter Cars Promoted for Safety, Better Mileage (MarketWatch via Technoride)

European Company Working on Uncrashable Car

In the quest for unimpeachable car safety, the European company Prevent is trying to build the first "uncrashable" car. This sounds absurd, but Prevent wants to use existing computer technology to make a vehicle as “deathproof” as the laws of physics will allow.

The aim is to prevent — get it? Prevent, prevent? Never mind — accidents before they occur by making use of an integrated computer system that can warn drivers about road hazards, upcoming rough terrain, watch the car’s blind spots, and analyze not only the car’s speed and distance from other cars, but also monitor the speed and trajectories of other vehicles. Oh, and it also makes a decent cappuccino (or, at least, it might as well).

Don't expect to see all of these sophisticated systems while you're car-shopping. However, a few like blind-spot detection and distance detection are in use now. It will still be a few years before a majority of the technology catches up to Prevent's aspirations.

Road Safety: The Uncrashable Car? (Science Daily via Gizmodo)

2009 Subaru Forester Earns Top Safety Pick Nod

The redesigned Subaru Forester received the Top Safety Pick award from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety today. To earn the Top Safety Pick, vehicles must rank “good” — the institute’s top crash rating in front, side and rear impacts. They also must be equipped with stability control.

There are a total of 37 Top Safety Picks. 20 are SUVs, but only two other small SUVs — the Honda CR-V and Honda Element — rank that high. Cars.com’s Kelsey Mays recently reviewed the new Forester and came away impressed.

2009 Subaru Forester Expert Review

Pricey Safety Equipment's Value Contested

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety released a report today indicating that expensive new safety equipment doesn’t really prevent accidents. The report sounds scathing, especially toward seemingly useless blind spot monitors, but once the report charts the number of fatal crashes that could be prevented by widespread use, the case for the certain types of equipment is compelling.

For example, if a system like lane departure warning was mandatory, it would prevent 10,345 fatal crashes annually. Likewise, forward collision warning systems that apply the brakes to prevent a crash could prevent 7,166 crashes if installed in every vehicle.

On the flip-side, blind-spot detection would only prevent 428 fatal crashes. As a raw number that looks good, but compared to other safety systems (including the ones mentioned above) and considering the cost for consumers (anywhere from $700 to $1,700), the statistical tradeoff is pretty insignificant.

While these technologies are usually only available as pricey options on luxury vehicles, we still think there is a good chance they could work their way across more affordable cars. Especially if these numbers are accurate. 

Report: Some auto safety gear's value limited (USA Today)

Cheating With Traffic Lights

Last week, we reported on the dysfunctional aspects of traffic light police cameras. In that post, we mentioned a Tennessee judge who actually timed a light in Chattanooga and found it had been set incorrectly.

It turns out there are five other sleazy local municipalities that have shortened their yellow lights in order to catch more violators running reds, thereby collecting more revenue. Now you can add Dallas and Lubbock, Texas, Springfield, Mo., Union City, Calif., and Nashville, Tenn., to the list of cities who owe citizens reparations.

With this practice so geographically widespread, we recommend that the next time you get a speeding ticket, take a stopwatch and actually time the light. A yellow should last about 4.5 seconds.

Six Cities Busted for Shortening Yellow Light (Autoblog)

Skip Traffic Jams with Microsoft 'Clearflow'

Microsoft recently added a new traffic-predicting technology called "Clearflow" to its Live.com site. Clearflow uses algorithms to determine how traffic patterns will change and which routes will be best for drivers.

For instance, if there is a highway accident that has vehicles backed up for several miles, one would assume he or she should exit the highway and find a local route, right? Maybe. In some cases so many drivers choose to skip the traffic jam that surface streets become congested and take even longer than if the driver had simply waited out the delay. Clearflow will supposedly account for these variables.

Microsoft plans to integrate its technology with online map services from Google, Yahoo, and Mapquest. Because traffic changes so quickly, however, by the time you check a route on your computer, get in the car, and actually take off, the traffic pattern may already have changed. As Autopia suggests, Microsoft needs to have the technology available from its mobile service and find a way to utilize GPS technology so that not only are drivers made aware of traffic jams in real-time, they’re given alternate routes as well.

Microsoft "Clearflow" Helps You Avoid Traffic Jams (Autopia)

Stop-Light Cameras: Safety Feature or Revenue Stream?

Recently, cameras positioned to catch potential red-light runners have come under fire from cities and local municipalities. From Dallas, Tex. to Mill Creek, Wash., city governments are discovering that red-light cameras don't make as much sense.

In Mill Creek, for instance, the cameras do not catch enough red-light runners to make the cameras worth the cost. In Dallas, where the cameras have in some intersections accounted for a 50% reduction of drivers running red lights, the city has idled over one-fourth of its cameras. The system is too expensive to maintain and the revenue has come in at least $8.6 million short of the city's initial projection.

This raises the question: What is the purpose of the cameras? Are they meant to actually improve safety, or are cities simply using them to increase revenue through fines? Or both?

Hackers Could Break Car Key Codes

A group of German scientists is claiming it has broken the code of those remote key fobs that unlock your car. The claims have yet to be confirmed, but the claim raises valid concerns that a high-tech thief could get easy access to your car.

The group says it can break the code of Honda, Toyota, Volvo and Volkswagen vehicles. None of the companies have responded.

The article below correctly points out that gaining access to the car is the easy part. After all, a thief can just pick up a rock and break a window to get inside; it’s still very hard to start a car and drive off.

The story does serve as a good reminder to keep your car gadgets — like navigation units — out of plain site and park in well lit spots at night.

Scientists crack security system of millions of cars (Sunday Herald)

Midsize Cars Improve in Side Crash Tests

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety recently concluded crash tests on seven midsize sedans and discovered that while they had improved in side crash tests, they still lacked enough head protection to earn top marks in rear crash tests.

Tested were the 2008 model year Chevrolet Malibu, Dodge Avenger, Infiniti G35, Kia Optima, Mitsubishi Galant (which was updated for the 2009 model year on sale now), Nissan Altima and Saturn Aura.

Only the Kia Optima did not earn the top score of “good” for side impact crash tests – it received the second highest nod, “acceptable.” However, the Optima was the only car in the test to receive a “good” score in rear crash tests.

The difficulty in scoring the top rank in rear tests involves head and neck protection for those rear-end collisions that produce whiplash. The IIHS claims that those types of accidents and injuries lead to losses of $8.5 billion annually. Most vehicles need to equip active head restraints to pass this test.

The Audi A3, A4, Honda Accord, Saab 9-3 and Subaru Legacy – with optional stability control – earned good ratings in all tests previously and earned the IIHS’ Top Safety Pick designation for midsize cars. 

A full chart of how the cars scored is below.

Ford's New Features Increase Visibility, Decrease Blind Spots

Tuesday, we reported that Chrysler will introduce a Blind Spot Detection System on its 2009 minivans. It seems this week is official Blind Spot Detection Week, as today Ford also announced two new features for its 2009 lineup to combat blind spots.

Ford’s Blind Spot Monitoring System will hit the market in early 2009 using radar to track vehicles lingering in a driver’s blind spot; this is a first for Ford, Lincoln and Mercury vehicles. Like other systems — which have traditionally been available on luxury cars — Ford’s will alert drivers when a vehicle trips the radar, via an audible tone inside the cabin and an illuminating icon on the side-view mirror.

In conjunction with that, a Cross Traffic Alert feature will sense rearward crossing traffic when reversing out of a parking space. Ford says the system can detect an approaching vehicle up to 65 feet away on either side of the vehicle’s rear bumper.

Also to assist with blind spots is a new side-view mirror with an integrated blind-spot mirror. Much like those gas-stop stick-on mirrors, there’s a second, small mirror in the side-view mirror’s corner that gives drivers an extra perspective of the road. Ford says its blind spot mirror will be standard equipment on many Ford, Lincoln and Mercury vehicles models, but no specific models have been named yet.

Related
Chrysler Dishes Out New Features for 2009 Models (KickingTires)

Japan Bribing Seniors Off the Road

And you thought Florida was bad.

Japan has one of the most rapidly aging populations of any country in the developed world, and one way this has affected the Japanese is on the road. While traffic accidents have fallen 20% in the past six years, Japan has seen a 35% balloon in accidents involving drivers over the age of 70.

What's a country to do?

Crain's News Service recently reported that Japan has decided to try to lure seniors into parting with their driver's licenses voluntarily by offering the nation's elderly certain incentives. The government has recruited several dozen businesses to offer rewards to seniors, including discounts at restaurants and hotels, home delivery from an upscale department store, and reduced interest rates at a local bank. Even a 10% discount at Dominos's Pizza can be theirs — all they have to do is hand over that license.

On the other hand, the elderly are the one population segment in Japan that's still growing. Watch for automakers' sales to suffer if this trend catches on. What do you think? Is it appropriate for a city or state to bribe seniors into relinquishing their primary means of transportation?

Sleepy Drivers May Get Help From Blue Light

While drunken drivers get most of the attention, fatigued drivers can be just as dangerous. Tired motorists have all the usual aids available in any gas station — caffeine, cigarettes, energy pills — but now researchers at the Rensselaen Polytechnic Institute may have come up with a healthier, wiser way to keep drivers alert.

They've found that taking a 30-minute "bath" in blue light can modify the body's internal clock and give drivers the energy necessary to stay awake and energized. Short wavelengths of blue light can have the same effect as other revitalizers, but without the detrimental health ramifications associated with downing four Red Bulls.

The team is now investigating the best method for delivering a blue-light bath. This may involve mounting LED blue lights in the cabs of cars and trucks. Drivers could hit a switch and drive in a blue-light bath until they felt more alert. The next question is how much blue lights will add to the sticker price.

Blue LEDs Could Rouse Sleepy Drivers (The New Scientist via Jalopnik)

DriveCam Lets Parents Keep an Eye on Teen Drivers

George Orwell would be impressed.

The company DriveCam has devised a camera system that monitors teen drivers every moment they’re in a vehicle. Parents can keep tabs by way of a camera that records what is going on both inside the car and on the other side of the windshield. Every time the car makes a sudden or unexpected movement, the camera transmits a digital recording to a central database. This transmission is analyzed and a text message is sent to parents. DriveCam also delivers a weekly safety report to parents that rates the driver's skills and decisions.

DriveCam says it hopes the system will lead to better driving practices by teenagers and an eventual decrease in teen driving deaths (nearly 3,500 young drivers were killed in 2006), but the system seems unreasonably invasive. Parents who want full updates on every missed turn signal and rolling stop will be disappointed to learn that kids are free to make mistakes outside their cars as well. With a price tag of $900 plus a subscription fee for the service, it seems cheaper to just instill good driving habits and responsibility in your kids.

Mom Called and Said, "Slow Down!" (The Wall Street Journal via Automotive Blogs)

NHTSA Raises Questions About Smart Safety

The tiny Smart ForTwo already passed European safety standards, and recently the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration also cleared it for the U.S. Side-impact scores were high — five out of five stars — but NHTSA raised concerns over the driver’s door opening during impact.

NHTSA usually gives high ratings because its testing system isn’t as strenuous as the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s, which Cars.com prefers. The Smart received four stars for front crashes on the driver’s side and only three stars for the front passenger. Its rollover rating was also just three stars, a rating usually reserved for large SUVs. (Three stars is the rollover score the 2008 Ford Explorer got.) 

In comparison, the small Chevy Aveo and Toyota Yaris get higher front and rollover scores, but lower side-impact ratings. And, of course, no added warning about the doors flying open.

NHTSA Smart crash test page with video (Safecar.gov)
More Smart News (KickingTires)

Video Game Could Make for Better Drivers, Safer Roads

Little did I know that spending a good chunk of my adolescence staying up past 2 a.m. playing "Grand Turismo" on Playstation until my eyes were sore would make me a better driver.

OK, that may not be exactly true, but it turns out several companies are completely serious about using video games to train and evaluate the two riskiest groups of drivers: the young and the old. Retirees and teenagers are the most accident-prone groups of drivers, and according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, teenagers account for three times as many fatal car accidents as all other drivers.

Companies like CogniFit are hoping their video game driving simulator DriveFit will lower these numbers. According to the New York Times, DriveFit tests visual memory, reaction time and overall cognitive ability. As the cognitive ability of retirees degrades with age, the program measures if these drivers are still fit for the road. Similarly, it can assess whether young drivers are fully prepared to get behind the wheel or if they need more instruction.

Driving schools in Great Britain and Canada have already put CogniFit's software into their curriculum. Programs in New York, New Jersey and Maryland have already started using DriveFit.

Are You a Good Driver? Here's How to Find Out (The New York Times)

Insurance Companies Encourage Safer Teenage Driving

Parents everywhere are familiar with the uncertain, slightly sickening feeling they get when they realize their baby will someday be behind the wheel of two or three tons of fast-moving metal and glass. Encouraging good driving habits in teenagers has long been the work of parents, but now private insurance companies want to contribute to the cause as well.

Insurance providers like Safeco, Nationwide and Fireman's Fund Insurance are a few of the companies instituting pricing methods that reward safer, more capable teenage drivers. They do so by offering "significant" discounts to teenage drivers who follow certain safety procedures, like completing an online safety course or installing monitoring technology that allows their parents to keep tabs on them.

When adding a teenager to the family insurance rolls, adults know they’ll have to watch their premiums rocket 50% to 100%, making any reduction in cost welcome.

The government has also tried its hand at reducing teen accidents with methods that range from restricting teens from night driving to capping the number of passengers allowed in the vehicle. If some of these ideas prove statistically successful for the states that enact them, watch for copycat laws to follow.

What would you say is the best method for making teenagers better drivers?

Meanwhile, the Private Sector Helps Teen Safety as Well (Autopia)

Smart Brake Lights Make Drivers More Aware

The problem with brake lights, according to a group of Virginia Tech engineering students, is that the warning signals are simple "yes or no" propositions. When a driver engages the brake in any way, the lights go on without any indication to the following vehicle of how quickly the car will decelerate. Therefore, you get the same signal whether the driver is merely tapping the brake or slamming on the pedal to avoid a major obstacle in the road.

In response to this problem, the students have devised a new kind of brake light, one that actually tells drivers how quickly the car in front of them will stop. The lights are a series of bars that glow orange when a car is merely slowing and bright red when it is about to come to a more immediate halt. The urgency of the lights would be intuitive for drivers based on existing traffic signals.

The only drawback is that the lights will be more expensive to manufacture than existing brake lights. The students think the price of the technology will come down quickly, especially when the lights become commercialized.

Smart Brake Light System Would Provide More Information to Drivers (Physorg.com)

Reinforced Cars Stymie Rescue Workers

There’s no doubt that today's cars and trucks are the safest that cars have been since the first Model T rolled off the Ford assembly line. The introduction of advanced materials, reinforced frames, and other features that cushion occupants during major collisions have led to the lowest traffic fatality rate in U.S. history.

According to a recent article in Newsweek, however, the flipside of these safe vehicles is that when rescue workers arrive on the scene of an accident, they’re faced with the Herculean task of freeing victims from the web of safety features that remain intact even in the wake of a massive accident.

Workers wear out saw blades trying to cut through doors, posts and roofs. They face dangers of pressurized airbags or electrocution from hidden cables in hybrid vehicles. Where it might have once taken them 10 to 15 minutes to extract an accident victim, it may now take them 20 or 30 — precious time when the victim needs to receive treatment.

Child-Safety Seat Recalls Lack Standards

Earlier this month we reported on the recall of Evenflo child-safety seats, but that recall — issued by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration — has an interesting story behind it. As reported by The New York Times, NHTSA issued the recall despite the fact that there is no crash-test standard for child-safety seats.

In fact, according to the Times article, the only reason NHTSA issued the recall was because this particular safety seat underwent "catastrophic failure" during a side-impact crash test, when the seat separated from its base then pitched forward in the vehicle.

Survey: Men Are Less Attentive Drivers Than Women

Contrary to popular stereotype, a recent survey conducted by insurance group NRMA found that men are the more distracted of the sexes behind the wheel. It should come as no shock that of the 1,350 individuals surveyed, almost all admitted to being guilty of one driving distraction or another.

The most common offense? Fiddling with the car stereo. Yes, the CD player, radio, MP3 player — perhaps even the tape deck — turned out to be quite the priority, as 76% of drivers admitted to taking their attention off the road to change the station or skip a song (in all fairness, though, 2007 was the year of Nickelback's "Rockstar").

Additional distractions included beverage drinking, map checking, insect chasing, newspaper reading, shaving and kissing. Men were the graver culprits, however, with 30% admitting to nearly causing an accident compared to only 20% of women.

Perhaps the most distressing figure is the 20% of both sexes that admitted to texting while driving, which seems to us like the most dangerous distraction of all — short of chasing an insect with a newspaper while making out and drinking a Coke, that is.

Male Drivers More Likely to be Distracted Behind the Wheel (Motor Authority)

Study Finds Traffic-Light Cameras Hazardous

In an effort to crack down on drivers who run red lights, many municipalities across the country have installed cameras at traffic lights to catch perpetrators and ship their tickets to them through the mail.

Recently, however, a study done by the University of South Florida Public Health has found that traffic cameras may cause more accidents than they prevent. This comes on top of research in Virginia, North Carolina and the Canadian province of Ontario that also seems to indicate a correlation between traffic-light cameras and increased accidents.

What's the link? The South Florida study suggests that when drivers spot a camera during a yellow light they are more likely to slam on the brakes and perhaps be rear-ended by the driver following them. Meanwhile, red-light running accounts for less than 4% of Florida's annual traffic deaths, so the cameras may actually be doing more harm than good.

Still, reversing the trend will be hard because of the extra cash the cameras bring to cities through tickets. Do you have traffic-light cameras in your town or city? Let us know how you feel about them in the comment section.

New Study Says Traffic-Light Cameras Cause Accidents (Autopia)

New Study: Stronger Roofs Will Save More Lives

That headline might sound like a no-brainer, but a study released today gives major ammunition to safety advocates when it comes to the importance of stronger car and SUV roofs. The report, conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, looked at 22,817 rollover crashes in 12 states between 1997 and 2005 and found that midsize SUVs with strong roofs had a lower risk of injury than SUVs with weaker roofs.

How much less? The injury risk was 39-57% less in the stronger-roofed SUVs. This is big news because rollover accidents claim nearly 10,000 lives a year. They’re especially lethal in SUVs, where 59% of all crash deaths are in rollovers.

The study only targeted midsize SUVS and doesn’t take into account non-seat-belted passengers, but the sheer size of the sample should compensate for the omissions. An automaker trade group representing GM, Ford, Chrysler, Toyota and six other companies calls the study flawed and is trying to prevent the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration from raising roof standards, requiring automakers to build roofs that will withstand 2.5 times the vehicle’s weight, versus the current 1.5 times it requires now.

The debate is open to the public. If you want stronger roofs mandated by NHTSA, contact the organization via this link. The deadline for comments is March 27. Let us know what you think as well in the comments below.

Study finds stronger car roofs raise survival rate (Detroit News)

Car Lenders Prey on Working Class, Poor

Predatory lending practices have been making headlines lately as a result of the home-mortgage crisis. One overlooked lending practice, however, has been that of car title lenders, who grant loans after placing a lien on the title of the borrower's car and getting a copy of the keys in case repossession becomes necessary.

Much like payday lenders, these companies make money off people in tough financial situations, with one important difference: A payday loan is based on the promise of a personal check, whereas with a car-based loan, the collateral is sometimes the family's only vehicle and most important possession.

Not only do individuals and families become ensnared in long-term debt with exorbitant interest rates (sometimes as high as 300%), they stand to lose their primary means of getting to work, school and the grocery store.

VW to Make Stability Control Standard for 2009

Volkswagen announced that it would join other automakers, including Ford, in making electronic stability control standard on all its vehicles in the 2009 model year. This puts it well ahead of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s 2012 deadline for all vehicles to be equipped with stability control standard.

NHTSA estimated that making stability control standard could save as many as 10,000 lives each year on the road.

Stability control goes by many names, depending on automaker, but Volkswagen calls its version Electronic Stabilization Program. Like other stability control systems, it helps drivers maintain control of their vehicle in abruptly changing driving situations.

Japanese Researchers Search for Solution to Traffic Jams

Everyone's been there: Jammed in gridlock on a city or freeway, chasing the bumper in front of you for a few feet before grinding to another halt, wishing you could part the cars in front of you like a glass-and-steel Red Sea.

Now, researchers from several Japanese universities are studying the so-called "shockwave" effect in hopes of learning how to prevent traffic jams. According to The New Scientist, "shockwave" is a concept that has been around for a while and describes the way a single driver slowing down can cause a chain reaction that eventually halts traffic. The researchers were the first to create a full-scale experiment to test the theory.

To do so, they had 22 vehicles drive around a 230-meter one-lane circle, then watched how the drivers reacted. Sure enough, a shockwave eventually mired the circuit in gridlock every time.

The researchers attributed the cause of the shockwave to simple human error. If robots were allowed to control the cars, they could maintain consistent speed and intervals with ease, but unfortunately it turns out we humans are far too … well, human.

We get distracted or nervous and slow down our car, which in turn begins to slow traffic in the rearview mirror. Before you know it, you have a full-scale traffic jam. Isn't it funny to think that the maddening gridlock that makes you want to blow open a vein might be caused by nothing more than a driver tapping the break to change the CD?

Shockwave Traffic Jam Recreated for First Time (The New Scientist via Slashdot)

Sleepiness Making Roads Less Safe

The Centers for Disease Control just released a study claiming that Americans are … no, it’s not fat (though we are). Instead, the CDC is calling us an increasingly sleep-deprived population. The definition of sleep-deprived is getting six hours of sleep or less a night, and the study claims that the number of people doing just that has risen steadily since 1985. It feels like every week a new study claims Americans are working harder and harder, so this comes as no surprise. Until they come up with a way to make it possible to work while sleeping — and wouldn’t that be the day — something’s got to give.

The problem with all that sleeplessness, beyond the obvious health issues, is what happens when we tired Americans get in our cars. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, what happens are accidents: approximately 100,000 of them occurred due to drowsiness last year, including more than 1,500 fatalities. Most accidents strike in the wee hours of the morning — between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m. — when, as they say, nothing good ever happens. That axiom’s probably true, but when you’re working the nightshift overtime to support a family, you have to get around somehow, right?

Asleep at the Wheel? You're Not Alone (Autopia)

Risky Driving Practices Begin at Age 12

We have some bad news for parents: According to a study conducted by The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and State Farm Insurance, the high risk for teenage death and injury in vehicular accidents does not begin at age 16, as you might expect.

The study, which was published this week in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, found that the risk of fatal injury spikes sharply once a child turns 12 — far greater than the risk their younger counterparts face.

The problem is that years before children have even a learner's permit, they are already beginning to practice the sort of high-risk behavior that typical teenage drivers are so well-known for. This includes not wearing a seat belt, driving on high-speed roads and riding with drivers 16 or younger — obviously their friends and classmates.

It's also important to note that out of the 10,000 teen passenger deaths included in the study, alcohol was a factor in one-fifth of those accidents.

The impact of the study is unclear. Does this give lawmakers reason to regulate the kinds of passengers young drivers can have in their vehicles? Are there other adjustments that can keep young passengers safer? Let us know what you think about the study's findings and how young passenger deaths can be prevented.

AAA Study: Crashes Cost You $1,051 a Year

Yes, even if you haven’t been in a crash recently, AAA reports in a study released today that auto accidents cost U.S. drivers $164 billion a year, or about $1,051 per person. To put that in perspective, the report says traffic congestion only costs us $67 billion a year.

AAA considered factors like property damage, lost earnings, medical costs, the cost for police and other emergency services, legal costs, and travel delays when it pulled together the report. One of the most interesting things it found was that drivers in smaller cities were hit harder (no pun intended) by crashes than drivers in big cities. For example, in L.A. crash costs top $10 billion a year, but that’s only about $817 per person. In Little Rock-North Little Rock, Ark., the total was $1.4 billion, or about $2,258 per person.

To try to lower those costs, AAA is asking lawmakers to focus more on safety and toughen laws against drunken drivers, while making driving without a seat belt a primary offense. That means cops could pull over a driver for that offense alone. Only about half of the 50 U.S. states already have that law.

'Crash Tax' Adds Insult to Injury

Municipalities across the country have come up with a new way to fund emergency first-responders. Some call it the crash tax, and the idea is simply this: If you get in an accident, you will pay a fee, usually through your insurance agency.

How much you have to pay depends on what kind of accident you’re in. According to Autopia, the system is tier-based, so minor scrape-ups may cost you a few hundred bucks, while larger accidents involving emergency response units may run thousands of dollars.

Already, websites have sprouted up howling about the injustice of such fund-generating methods. AccidentResponseFees.org and AccidentTax.com point out the objections of both the insurance companies, who have to cover the fees, and consumers, whose policies all increase as a result.

N.J. Drivers Get New Incentive to Hang Up

While many cities and some states have made it illegal to use cell phones while driving without a hands-free device, New Jersey has become the first state in the country to give cops the right to pull drivers over for only that offense. In Illinois and elsewhere, cops could add that charge to the ticket if they pulled you over for some other reason, or if you’d been in an accident while on the phone.

Now, cops in “Sopranos”-land can make you cough up $130 just for talking or text-messaging on a hand-held device. Ouch.

Newsday reports that cops will keep their eyes open for distracted drivers. How? They look for warning signs, of course: Slow driving and the “cell-phone weave,” said Pam Fischer, director of New Jersey's Division of Highway Traffic Safety.

Motorists are still allowed to use their phones in case of emergency, and can still talk while using a hands-free device to avoid the fine. Of course, there’s plenty of research out there that says it’s not holding the phone that’s the biggest problem; it’s being deep in conversation that’s the distraction. Jersey cops also admit that enforcement may be tough, but they say they’re hoping the new law will open the eyes, if not the ears, of local drivers.

Shut up or pay up: Drivers face start of tougher NJ phone ban (Newsday)

Ford Recalls 434,593 Mustangs

Ford has issued a recall for 434,593 Mustangs from the 2005-08 model years after tests by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration showed there could be increased risk of neck injury during airbag deployment. According to NHTSA's recall report, the risk of injury is greater for small females in the front passenger seat who are unbelted, sitting with their seat in the full-forward position.

To fix the problem, Ford dealerships will reprogram a restraint control module free of charge. Recalls are expected to begin Feb. 28. Consumers can call 866-436-7332 or email www.ownerconnection.com.

Nissan Murano Earns Top Safety Pick

The redesigned 2009 Nissan Murano has earned a Top Safety Pick rating among 10 midsize SUVs crash-tested by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

The Murano was the only SUV to get a Top Safety Pick honor by scoring Good in all three crash tests. (Results in front, side and rear crash tests by IIHS are rated as Good, Acceptable, Marginal or Poor.) The 2008 Mazda CX-7 and Mazda CX-9, as well as the 2008 Mitsubishi Endeavor, fell short of the Top Safety Pick rating, IIHS says, because head-rest protection in rear crash tests was rated Marginal in the Mazdas and Poor in the Mitsubishi.

Though many would classify the Murano, CX-7 and CX-9 as crossovers, IIHS classifies them as SUVs.

 

GPS and Breathalyzer All in One

We don’t need to tell anyone that drinking and driving is not a good idea. A Portuguese GPS company’s latest handheld navigation unit not only tells you how to get where you’re going, it also tells you if you should even get behind the wheel; one of the settings is a breathalyzer.

You simply blow into a small sensor on the side of the unit and it tells you your blood alcohol level. The price overseas is 200 Euros, but because the company only sells its products in Portugal, it’s unlikely this one will come to the U.S. However, it seems like a good idea for domestic GPS companies. Keep reading to see a video of the unit in action — in English even.

NDrive's G400 PND Knows When You're One Sip Over The Line (Engadget)

'Kids and Cars' to Soon Become Law

This week Congress approved a piece of auto safety legislation popularly known as the Kids and Cars Act, which President Bush is expected to sign into law. While hailed by both parties, the law is largely toothless and more of a blueprint for future reforms.

The bill requires the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to set up a database of auto-accidents not related to traffic — mostly those that take the lives of children. That would include rare but deadly cases of children being backed over by unaware drivers, or being suffocated when their necks are caught in power windows.

The bill requires the NHTSA to merely study the prospect of requiring auto-manufacturers to design all windows to retract if they meet an obstacle, much the way your garage door does. The cost of such regulation for automakers would be about $10 per window for a total of $700 million each year.

While safety advocates want to require all vehicles to include back-up cameras or other rear visibility improvements, the bill notes the expense of mandating such measures and asks only that the NHTSA take the next year to devise and draft a proposal for “expanding the field of view” behind every vehicle. That may include back-up cameras, as well as additional mirrors. These new requirements would then be phased in over a four-year period.

Senate Sends ‘Kids and Cars’ Act to Bush (Detroit News)

Miley Cyrus Told to Buckle Up

Yes, we know we're not a teen celeb site but this news item definitely caught our eye. Consumer Reports' blog is upset that both Miley Cyrus and her father, Billy Ray Cyrus, are shown riding in a Land Rover without wearing seatbelts. The scene — presumably a real-life segment — takes place in her concert film "Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of BothWorlds Concert."

The reason CR thinks this is such a big deal is that 65% of 13-15-year-olds killed in auto accidents in 2006 weren't wearing their seatbelts. Since there probably isn't a bigger superstar among pre-teens and teens, the magazine thinks the scene in the movie is a bad example for Cyrus' fans.

Having not seen the movie ourselves — shocker — we can't say if it was a quick shot of the two getting in the SUV or an extended drive, but there isn't an excuse not to wear a seatbelt once a car is moving.

Note to Hannah Montana: Seat Belts Are Necessary, Not an Accessory (ConsumerReports)

1 Million Evenflo Infant Car Seats Recalled

A million Evenflo Discovery infant car seats were the subject of a voluntary recall by the company this week after testing showed the seats could break loose from their base in a collision. Testing conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration discovered the problem, which affects models numbered 390, 391, 534 and 552 that were manufactured between April 2005 and January 29, 2008.

The company will provide owners with a free dual-hook fastener that will fix the problem and keep the seat attached to its base. The company said there have been no reports of serious injuries or deaths due to the faulty seats. Owners should call Evenflo at 800-356-2229.

Testing finds Evenflo car seat risk; recall set (Chicago Tribune)

How Can a Car Get an Airbag Waiver?

Tesla Motors made news recently when the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration exempted the company’s new all-electric Roadster from its advanced airbag requirement for three years. How does a car manage to get an airbag exemption? Not easily, but Tesla makes for a unique example.

After spending $43 million on a car that will supposedly go 220 miles on a single charge of the battery, Tesla executives must have sighed with relief after the agency’s ruling. NHTSA said that forcing Tesla to comply with the advanced airbag requirement would put the company out of business “in the U.S. and potentially worldwide.” A three year exemption should cover the first 3,825 Roadsters on the market.

The agency also cited Tesla’s all-electric powertrain in its decision, stating, “We believe that the public interest is served by encouraging the development of fuel-efficient and alternative-fueled vehicles.”

Tesla’s Roadster is not the only small car NHTSA has exempted, though. Ferrari, Bugatti and last year’s Lotus Elise have all received similar deals, so perhaps fuel efficiency was a lesser consideration than the car’s $98,000 price tag and high-end market niche. The first wave of Roadsters will begin production March 17 and are already sold out.

It’s important to note that the Tesla does include airbags, they just don’t adjust the deployment speed based on the weight of the passenger. Either way, taking a hit in a Roadster is not going to be pleasant.