Car Safety

You've heard it probably 300 times just this year alone. You've been hearing it for the past few years as well. When the weather turns frightfully cold, you need to have winter tires on your car. You'll protest and decry that all-seasons get the job done, or that it doesn't matter because you have...

Following its September presentation of guidelines for the safe testing and deployment of self-driving cars, the Department of Transportation proposed a ruling on Tuesday that would advance the deployment of connected vehicle technologies. The DOT proposed requiring all new cars and light trucks to...

Car thieves want your wheels, and they will find a way to take them away from you. Automakers attempt to combat them in a number of ways but the car thieves are crafty and they evolve alongside the vehicles. It seems there's a new means for the baddies to pinch your ride if it's one that's equipped...

Mercedes-Benz has developed a new type of headlight with such precise control of the light beam that it can project complex symbols, including words, onto the road ahead to help inform the driver of his or her surroundings. Mercedes calls the technology HD (High-Definition) headlights and plans to...

Self-driving cars have the potential to bring substantial societal benefits, the primary one being improved safety. The thinking is that by replacing the human with a computer, the number of accidents could be dramatically reduced. This is based on results of studies that show the majority of...

No, you’re not looking at a prop from the 1980s sci-fi classic The Thing. This is Graham, a sculpture that’s meant to represent a human being evolved to survive car crashes. It was created by a team of artists and researchers as part of a safety campaign run by the Transport Accident...

Organizers of Formula One are looking to introduce some form of cockpit protection, perhaps as early as next season. Two leading proposals are the Halo, originally devised by Mercedes AMG, and the Aeroscreen, devised by Red Bull Racing. While Red Bull has demonstrated the proficiency of its...

Porsche is alerting owners of its 918 Spyder that it wants to take a look at the seat belt mounting system in their supercars to ensure that the correct screw is in the correct location. The problem, the automaker says, isn't that the vehicles were assembled incorrectly in Zuffenhausen, Germany...

The independent, insurance industry-sponsored institute that evaluates new cars for their crashworthiness has less-than-positive things to say about the headlights in more than 20 small SUVs and crossovers. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety says that not a single vehicle it tested earned...

Ferrari [NYSE:RACE] rolled out an updated version of the proposed Formula One cockpit protection system known as the Halo for testing purposes during this past weekend’s 2016 British Grand Prix. The system was tested by Sebastian Vettel during one of the practice sessions. Compared to the...

Volvo’s all-new 2017 S90 sedan and upcoming 2018 V90 wagon, like the XC90 crossover introduced this past year, are packed with safety technology. If you’re familiar with Volvo’s reputation, that’s probably no surprise. Volvo has been at the forefront in occupant safety for...

Laguna Seca's corkscrew isn't famous because everyone gets it right. The combination of corners—lovingly 8 and 8A—combines a hard left and hard right with little camber to help and a five-story drop to make it even harder. By the time you're done with turn 9, cars have dropped more than...

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recently examined the suspension of the Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] Model S after receiving a number of complaints about parts breaking. The CEO of the electric car company Elon Musk revealed in a Twitter post on Friday that NHTSA determined...

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is examining suspension components on Tesla Motors’ [NSDQ:TSLA] Model S sedan after receiving dozens of complaints of parts breaking. According to The New York Times, NHTSA received 33 complaints, including one where a suspension ball joint...

Parking a car can prove to be an oddly difficult task for some. This isn't something that's specific to either sex, mind you. It's just that some folks out there have issues with spatial awareness, multi-tasking, and all of the other skills needed to be a good parker. Officials in China feel that...

With the rise in popularity of ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft comes an unusual consequence: More people are sitting in the back seat of cars. This, says the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, is a good reason to amp up back seat safety research. For now, NHTSA's testing only...

Muscle cars have long been enthusiast favorites, but the results of a new series of crash tests performed by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) reveal that they may not be the safest cars on the road. The IIHS, which is funded by the insurance industry, took 2016 examples of the Ford...

Electric car brand Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] says it is developed a HEPA air filtration system designed to clear up the outside world before it enters a vehicle's cabin. The filtering system is so clean that Tesla claims you could "survive a military grade bio attack" using it. HEPA, an acronym for...

When seeing at night becomes difficult, many people blame their own eyes. But car headlights may really be the problem, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), which just released its first-ever headlight ratings. Headlights are getting more advanced, with LEDs and other new...

The 2016 Formula One World Championship started off this past weekend with one of the most frightening crashes the sport has seen in years. The crash saw McLaren driver Fernando Alonso fly through the air when his car came into contact with the car of Haas driver Esteban Gutierrez. Fortunately...