In the latest report of Uber driver versus passenger, police in San Francisco have cited an UberX driver with three misdemeanors for allegedly pulling a passenger out of his car and smashing her smartphone while she tried to record the showdown. [More]
Transportation & Infrastructure
Uber Driver Accused Of Pulling Passenger From Car, Smashing Her Phone After Fight Over Directions
By 10.21.14
GM Ignition Switch Death Claims Inch Higher Again; 29 Deaths Now Tied To Decade-Old Defect
By 10.20.14
Slowly but surely the General Motors victim compensation plan continues to add new death claims linked to defective ignition switches. This week, as with several previous weeks, the total number of innocent lives lost as a result of the defect increased by two, bringing the new total to 29. [More]
Toyota Expands Defective Airbag Recall To 247,000 Additional Vehicles In High Humidity Areas
By 10.20.14
Just days after it was revealed that defective Takata-produced airbags had been linked to three deaths in the United States, Toyota Motor Corp. expanded its recall of vehicles that may employ the safety devices to include 247,000 additional cars. [More]
Volkswagen Recalls More Than 441,000 Beetles, Jettas To Inspect Rear Suspension Issue
By 10.17.14
Did you ever play the road trip game where you got to punch your sibling if you saw a Volkswagen Beetle? No? Okay, well then, neither did I. For those thinking of playing “slug bug” (or punch buggy, punch bug, punch dub, piggy punch, beetle bug) on the next long drive, there may be fewer cars to spot now that VW is recalling some 441,000 Beetle and Jetta vehicles for possible suspension issues. [More]
Michigan May Be Latest To Ban Direct Sales Of Teslas
By 10.17.14
Because car dealerships don’t want to move beyond an era of gladhanding salesman upselling customers on unnecessary add-ons — and because they apparently want to give electric car company Tesla as much free advertising as possible — they are pushing for Michigan to enact legislation preventing carmakers from selling directly to consumers in the state. [More]
Honda To Audit Reporting Inaccuracies After Third Takata Airbag Death Linked To Company
By 10.17.14
Car manufacturers are required under law to report death and injury claims to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Those figures allow the regulatory agency to identify potentially fatal and dangerous defects. New reports show that might not have been the case for Honda Motor Corp., whose vehicles have now been linked to three fatalities related to defective airbags. [More]
Uber Imposes Surge Pricing After Train Fatality: Is That Profiting From Death?
By 10.16.14
When there is a lot of demand for rides, the car-summoning app Uber imposes “surge” pricing, multiplying the standard fare. This serves to entice more drivers out onto the roads, and also to make some people looking for rides say, “eh, I’ll walk instead.” In the past, the company had promised not to raise prices excessively during emergencies that create high demand for rides, but not all situations that create intense demand are “emergencies.” [More]
Chrysler Recalls 747,000 Jeep And Dodge Vehicles For Electrical, Alternator Issues
By 10.16.14
By some standards the Chrysler Group’s recall of nearly 764,000 vehicles in the last three weeks is just a drop in the bucket. That changed today when the group issued two notices calling back an additional 747,000 vehicles for electrical and alternator issues. [More]
Taxi App Hailo Hits The Road, Leaves U.S. Due To Expense Of Competing
By 10.15.14
Apparently taxi-hailing app Hailo was beyond even The Rent Is Too Damn High Guy’s help: After four years as a smartphone app for taxi divers, Hailo says it’s taking its act out of North America because it’s too expensive to compete with services like Uber and Lyft. [More]
Toyota Recalls 1.6M Cars Globally For Fuel And Brake Line Issues
By 10.15.14
Here’s the thing about brakes, they’re supposed to actually stop a vehicle. And the thing about fuel delivery pipes is they generally make a car, you know, work. When either of those components don’t work properly big problems, such as crashes or fires, can occur. And that’s why Toyota is recalling more than 1.67 million vehicles globally. [More]
Uber Customer Claims She Was Briefly Kidnapped During 2-Hour Ride, Company Calls It An “Inefficient Route”
By 10.15.14
There’s disagreeing with your hired driver about which route to take, and then there’s driving around for two hours and stopping in an abandoned lot before finally getting home. One Uber customer in the Los Angeles area claims she was briefly kidnapped during an extended trip home that should’ve been relatively quick. [More]
Chrysler Recalls 184,000 SUVs For Same Airbag Issues Responsible For Ford Vehicles Recall
By 10.14.14
It certainly hasn’t been the best year for vehicle airbags. In the spring Honda, Toyota and other vehicle manufactures recalled millions of cars because the safety devices were found to be defective. And now we’re learning that the same short-circuit responsible for the recall of hundreds-of-thousands of Ford vehicles last month has been found in nearly 184,000 Chrysler-produced SUVs, prompting yet another safety recall. [More]
Police Arrest 4 Uber Drivers In Amsterdam For Being Uber Drivers
By 10.14.14
Ride-sharing services Uber and Lyft encounter legal roadblocks in many of the cities and states where they try to set up business: from San Antonio to Berlin, governments and taxi driver unions alike have done their best to stop Lyft and UberX, services where prescreened amateurs drive around paying customers. Now a local government has made good on one of these threats, arresting four Uber drivers in Amsterdam. [More]
Deaths Tied To Defective Ignition Switch Now Double GM’s Earliest Reports
By 10.13.14
Just two months after the General Motors victim compensation plan began accepting death claims related to the decades-long ignition switch defect the toll has doubled what the car manufacturers initially acknowledged publicly. [More]
Honda Recalls 43,000 Acura Vehicles Because Seat Belts Should Work
By 10.13.14
Seat belts are arguably one of the most important safety features in vehicles; when one doesn’t work properly there could be devastating results. That’s why Honda Motor Co. announced the recall of more than 43,000 Acura vehicles this week. [More]
Mitsubishi Recalls Small Cars, SUVs For Engine Stalling Issue
By 10.10.14
It seems like just hours ago that we wrote about a vehicle recall. Oh yeah, that’s because it was. This time around Mitsubishi is recalling nearly 166,000 small cars and SUVs for issues that could cause the vehicles to stall. [More]
A Brief History Of Car Colors — And Why Are We So Boring Now?
By 10.10.14
You don’t know their names, but you see them everywhere: countless shades of reds, greens, blues, grays, tans, taupes, whites, off-whites, charcoals, blacks, gold and silver. Really what you’re seeing is Vanilla Shake, Tahitian Pearl and Torched Penny. Cars are everywhere, and so are the colors they’re cruising around in, their own distinctive skins. Paint is one of the most important design aspects parts of a car — the right paint job can mean the difference between luxury and sport utility, can turn Grandpa’s jalopy into a teen dream machine, and forever change a car from a vehicle you use to get around to a statement on free love and drugs. [More]
GM Looks For Creative Ways To Cajole Owners To Repair Defective Ignition Switches
By 10.7.14
Consumers don’t appear to be flocking to their local General Motors dealer to fix vehicles that may have a deadly ignition switch defect. With fewer than half of the two million cars involved in the recall fixed, officials with the car manufacturer are trying to reach affected owners anyway they can – including going to their homes. [More]
