Bike lanes separated from the roadway by physical barriers—such as parked cars, a curb, landscaping or posts—may make cyclists feel safer and encourage more people to ride. However, a new IIHS (Insurance Institute for Highway Safety) study shows that protected bike lanes vary in terms of injury risk. Factors such... Read more →

The 2019 Audi e-tron SUV is the first pure battery-electric vehicle to earn the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) 2019 Top Safety Pick+ rating, the highest rating awarded by the nonprofit organization. In developing the e-tron, engineers designed a battery pack with performance, longevity and safety in mind. The... Read more →

The 2019 Hyundai NEXO hydrogen fuel cell electric SUV has earned a TOP SAFETY PICK+ award from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) for vehicles built after June 2019. The NEXO, which is only available in California, is the first such hydrogen fuel cell vehicle that IIHS has tested.... Read more →

Emphasizing safety by design, 11 automotive and automated driving technology companies have published “Safety First for Automated Driving,” (SaFAD), a non-binding organized framework for the development, testing and validation of safe automated passenger vehicles. The 11 companies—Aptiv, Audi, Baidu, BMW, Continental, Daimler, FCA US LLC, HERE, Infineon, Intel and Volkswagen—comprise... Read more →

The Lexus Safety System+ will be a standard feature in all US Lexus vehicles starting with the 2020 model year. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) there were nearly 6.5 million reported crashes in 2017 (the most recent available data) many of which were avoidable. Collisions that... Read more →

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) statistical projection of traffic fatalities for 2018 shows that an estimated 36,750 people died in motor vehicle traffic crashes. This represents a slight decrease of about 1.0% as compared to the 37,133 fatalities that were reported to have occurred in 2017. Preliminary data... Read more →

Facial and head injuries from riding electric scooters have tripled over the past decade, according to a Rutgers study. Electric scooter use has been increasing in popularity as a more environmentally friendly and efficient alternative to gasoline vehicles. However, state helmet laws vary, and the study found that many people... Read more →

Hyundai Motor Company is partnering with MDGo, an Israeli start-up specializing in medical artificial intelligence (AI) systems, to help shape the next generation of advanced vehicle safety systems. Hyundai Motor and MDGo will co-develop connected services that bring the worlds of health and automotive closer than ever. MDGo’s intelligent injury... Read more →

Side impact collisions are among the most dangerous type of road traffic accidents, accounting for nearly 700 deaths per year and nearly a third of all occupant fatalities on German roads. A new pre-crash safety system prototype developed by ZF uses an external side airbag deployed milliseconds before a collision.... Read more →

Volvo Cars is making its industry-first connected safety technology available across Europe as another step in its ambitions to improve traffic safety. The technology allows Volvo cars to communicate with each other and alert drivers of nearby slippery road conditions and hazards via a cloud based network. Hazard Light Alert... Read more →

At the American Institute of Chemical Engineers’ (AIChE’s) Spring Meeting, US Department of Energy (DOE) Fuel Cell Technologies Office (FCTO) Director Sunita Satyapal announced a planned collaboration with the new Center for Hydrogen Safety (CHS), launched by AIChE. With support from several global entities as well as the FCTO, the... Read more →

Volvo Cars, as a worldwide leader in safety, will limit the top speed on all its cars to 180 km/h (112 mph) from 2020. The company’s Vision 2020, which aims for no one to be killed or seriously injured in a new Volvo by 2020, is one of the most... Read more →

A new report from the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) projects that 6,227 pedestrian fatalities occurred in 2018, the highest number in nearly three decades. States were asked to report pedestrian fatalities for the first six months of 2018. After adjusting this raw data based on historical trends, GHSA projects... Read more →

New research from Rice University and Texas Tech University has found that drivers often fail to spot hazards missed by automated vehicles, and it only gets worse the longer drivers ride in them. The study is published in the journal Human Factors. The researchers examined the behavior of 60 licensed... Read more →

e At the 2019 Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Continental and the telecommunications group Vodafone will showcase the first results of their partnership on Cellular V2X, mobile edge computing and artificial intelligence. Last summer, the partners announced that they would be working together to increase road safety. The first... Read more →

Rice University scientists have developed a detection system capable of alerting for Li dendrite formation in a two‐electrode battery with a Li metal anode with no additional electrodes required. A paper on the work is published in the journal Advanced Materials. The Rice lab of chemist James Tour made test... Read more →

Manipulating a cellphone was a contributing factor in more than 800 crash deaths on US roads during 2017 amid a marked increase in the percentage of drivers observed interacting with cellphones, new IIHS research indicates. The estimated number of deaths, however, still represents a fraction of the overall crash death... Read more →

Porsche’s new eighth generation of the Porsche 911 features Porsche Wet Mode, an innovative assistance system introduced exclusively for the 911. The system includes a function for detecting significant wet road conditions and a corresponding vehicle setup for increased driving stability on wet road surfaces. Wet Mode was developed to... Read more →

Hyundai Motor Group has developed the world’s first multi-collision airbag system that significantly improves airbag performance in multi-collision accidents. Multi-collision accidents are those in which the primary impact is followed by collisions with secondary objects, such as trees, electrical posts or other vehicles. Multi-collision accidents occur in three out of... Read more →

Toyota Motor Corporation announced that the total global number of vehicles equipped with Toyota Safety Sense (TSS), the Toyota-developed preventive safety package, has reached the 10 million unit mark approximately three and a half years after its March 2015 introduction. Toyota anticipates that within this year, three million vehicles in... Read more →

An IIHS study of General Motors vehicles with optional front crash prevention systems found that GM vehicles with autobrake and forward collision warning had 43% fewer police-reported front-to-rear crashes of all severities and 64% fewer front-to-rear crashes with injuries than the same vehicles without any front crash prevention technology. For... Read more →

A recent analysis by the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety (IIHS) Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI) foundthat Subaru’s EyeSight system (earlier post) cut the rate of likely pedestrian-related insurance claims by a statistically significant 35%. According to IIHS, 2016 data show pedestrian deaths account for 16% of all auto collision... Read more →

The National Transportation Safety Bo​ard issued its preliminary report in the investigation of the fatal crash of a Tesla on US Highway 101 in Mountain View, California on 23 March 2018. According to performance data downloaded from the crash vehicle, a 2017 Tesla Model X P100D, the driver was using... Read more →

North Carolina-based Hotstick USA has exclusively licensed a direct-current detector technology developed by the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory to help emergency responders safely detect high voltages. In emergency situations, first response teams often rely on voltage detectors such as Hotstick USA’s flagship product, the AC Hotstick, to... Read more →

Volvo Cars, the premium car maker, and leading truck maker Volvo Trucks (independent companies despite the names) are collaborating to share real-time data to expand coverage of the companies’ connected safety technology—cloud-based systems that allow vehicle to communicate with each other and alert drivers of nearby hazards. Volvo Trucks is... Read more →

Autotalks, an Israel-based fabless semiconductor company devoted to vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communications (earlier post), has joined the Connected Motorcycle Consortium (CMC). Autotalks will work with other CMC members to help realize the vision of a uniform motorcycle platform for V2M (Vehicle-to-Motorcycle) communication. Specifically, Autotalks and other CMC members will work together... Read more →

KULR Technology has reached agreement with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to be the exclusive manufacturing and distribution partner for the patented Internal Short Circuit (ISC) device which causes predictable battery cell failures in lithium-ion batteries, making them easier to study and, therefore, safer. Lithium-ion batteries provide power for... Read more →

General Motors has filed a Safety Petition with the US Department of Transportation (USDOT) for GM’s fourth-generation self-driving Cruise AV—the first production-ready vehicle built from the start to operate safely on its own, with no driver, steering wheel, pedals or manual controls. In 2016, GM acquired then-three-year-old start-up Cruise Automation... Read more →

At CES, NVIDIA outlined its functional safety architecture for NVIDIA DRIVE, its AI autonomous vehicle platform, which uses redundant and diverse functions to enable vehicles to operate safely, even in the event of faults related to the operator, environment or systems. The NVIDIA DRIVE architecture enables automakers to build and... Read more →

Continental is adding a further safety level to highly automated driving in the form of a specific electronics architecture. In addition to a central control unit for automated driving—the Assisted & Automated Driving Control Unit—the technology company uses a Safety Domain Control Unit (SDCU) as a fallback path in order... Read more →

Four of 20 automakers report that automatic emergency braking (AEB) is standard on more than half of their 2017 model year vehicles, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) announced in the first update of manufacturer progress toward equipping every new vehicle... Read more →

The Gulf Research Program (GRP) of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine is awarding $10.8 million to six new projects to develop new technologies, processes, or procedures that could result in improved understanding and management of systemic risk in offshore oil and gas operations. The greatest risk in... Read more →

Autonomous vehicles should only have to be moderately better than human drivers before being widely used in the United States, an approach that could save thousands of lives annually even before the technology is perfected, according to a new RAND Corporation report. Allowing wide use of autonomous vehicles when they... Read more →

With the sharp and largely unexpected increase in the long-distance movement of domestically produced crude oil, ethanol, and natural gas since 2005, a number of concerns have arisen about the safe transport of these hazardous materials, particularly in relation to railroad track defects, rural communities’ emergency response preparedness, and the... Read more →

Japan-based DENSO, one of the world’s largest automotive technology, systems and components suppliers, is expanding its US footprint with a $1-billion investment in its Maryville, Tennessee location. The investment is part of DENSO’s commitment to advancing automotive innovation in North America, and will significantly increase the role North America plays... Read more →

Many of the infotainment features in most 2017 vehicles are so distracting they should not be enabled while a vehicle is in motion, according to a new study by University of Utah researchers. The study, led by University of Utah Psychology Professor David L. Strayer, found In-Vehicle Information Systems take... Read more →

To help increase pedestrian safety during low-speed collisions, General Motors is introducing a new pedestrian safety system on its recently launched new Regal midsize sedan in China. The new Regal is the first Buick to offer the automaker’s standard active-hood pedestrian safety system, which senses the imminent impact of a... Read more →

Samsung Electronics announced a strategic partnership with TTTech, a global leader in the field of robust networking and safety controls. Along with this partnership, Samsung will also make a €75-million (US$89-million) strategic investment in TTTech as the first investment from its newly established $300-million Samsung Automotive Innovation Fund (SAIF). The... Read more →

The National Transportation Safety Board has determined that a truck driver’s failure to yield the right of way and a Tesla driver’s inattention due to overreliance on vehicle automation are the probable cause of the fatal 7 May 2016, crash near Williston, Florida. (Earlier post.) The NTSB also determined the... Read more →

Volkswagen is loading the new Polo with an extensive range of new assistance and convenience systems such as the Front Assist area monitoring system with City Emergency Braking and Pedestrian Monitoring; Blind Spot Monitor lane change assistant; Rear Parking Alert system; and Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC). Thanks to its MQB... Read more →

In Japan, Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) announced plans to expand adoption of safety support technologies to reduce further the rate of collisions. The company also announced an expansion of safety awareness activities for customers. Toyota performed independent calculations based on accident data from the Institute for Traffic Accident Research and... Read more →

All US 2017 Mazda models tested by the US Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), including the all-new Mazda CX-5, have been awarded the nonprofit organization's highest safety rating, Top Safety Pick+, when equipped with optional front crash prevention and adaptive LED headlights. IIHS evaluates crashworthiness with five tests: moderate... Read more →

Daimler Buses and its product brands Mercedes-Benz and Setra are introducing Active Brake Assist 4 (ABA 4) with pedestrian recognition—the first emergency braking assistance system in a bus to automatically brake for pedestrians. Active Brake Assist 3 already carries out maximum full-stop braking for vehicles ahead and for stationary obstacles.... Read more →

A new report from Rice University’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research has found that intersections with traffic lights in Houston are nine times more likely to see fatal car crashes with pedestrians and bicyclists than expected by chance. In comparison, intersections with stop signs were only 1.48 times as likely... Read more →

Israel-based Autotalks, a provider of V2X (Vehicle-to-Everything) communication solutions, is launching its bike-to-vehicle (B2V) solution, a technology for the prevention of motorcycle accidents. The solution is based on the B2X (Bike-to-Everything) chipset developed by the company. Bosch announced on 23 May that it is carrying out a development B2V study... Read more →

Toyota’s Collaborative Safety Research Center (CSRC) formally launched the next phase of its research mission, following on the successful conclusion of its first five years of auto safety research. The new research effort, named CSRC Next, will focus on the challenges and opportunities of autonomous and connected vehicle technologies over... Read more →

Sendyn, a provider of technologies for battery system management including current, voltage and temperature measurement ICs and modules (earlier post), has introduced the SIM100, a new type of automotive-rated isolation monitoring safety device that is capable of detecting potential electrical hazards during the dynamic operation of high-voltage unearthed systems—such as... Read more →

Continental is developing a new system called Road Condition Observer that uses vehicle sensors and cloud data to classify a road surface as dry, wet, covered with snow or icy and to assess the grip of the road surface. This knowledge, in turn, allows the vehicle to adjust the functions... Read more →

Volvo Cars is urging governments and car makers to share traffic data in order to improve global traffic safety, Håkan Samuelsson, president and chief executive, told a conference at the European Commission in Brussels on Monday. Sharing anonymized data related to traffic safety in real-time can provide a strong boost... Read more →

Volvo Cars announced that the new XC60 SUV—to be revealed at the Geneva Motor Show next week—will feature new advanced driver assistance features that will provide the driver with automatic steering assistance or support—when required—to help avoid potential collisions. Volvo Cars updated City Safety has been updated in the XC60... Read more →