car safety

DAVID WUJCIK

Exploding Sunroofs: Danger Overhead

When it happened, Heather Savage had two of her five children with her in their 2016 Nissan Pathfinder. Four-year-old Eli was strapped into a car seat in the second row, and Raquel, 15, whom they’d just picked up from ballet class, was in the front passenger seat. [More]

Lawmakers Introduce Bill Aimed At Preventing Hot Car Deaths

Lawmakers Introduce Bill Aimed At Preventing Hot Car Deaths

In an effort to keep children from dying in hot cars, three lawmakers have introduced a bill that would require car manufacturers to integrate technology capable of warning adults that there’s still a child in the backseat. [More]

MarkAmsterdam

NHTSA Taking A Road Trip To Remind Motorists To Fix Recalled Vehicles

If you don’t remember to get your recalled vehicle fixed, what if some kindly bureaucrats came to the lot where you’re parked to remind you? That’s what employees of the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration and some auto manufacturers are doing this week. They’re on a tour that’s like a political campaign, but not asking people to vote: they’re asking motorists to repair their vehicles and install their child safety seats correctly. [More]

Google: Self-Driving Cars Would’ve Hit Something 13 Times Without Human Intervention

Google: Self-Driving Cars Would’ve Hit Something 13 Times Without Human Intervention

Like any automaker testing self-driving cars in California, Google has to file reports with the state disclosing any incidents with their vehicles where a human test driver was required to take over. Though it says its cars are getting better at avoiding these “disengagements,” Google reported 13 incidents over a 14-month-period that would’ve resulted in a collision if a human hadn’t intervened. [More]

Hardware Designed To Make Child Car Seat Installation Easy Is Often Difficult To Use

Hardware Designed To Make Child Car Seat Installation Easy Is Often Difficult To Use

When driving with the most precious of cargo — your child — you obviously want to ensure that youngster is as safe as possible, but what good are the newest child safety measures if they’re too complicated to use? [More]

IIHS Crash Test Video Library Provides Edification, Entertainment

IIHS Crash Test Video Library Provides Edification, Entertainment

Have you always wanted to visit a web site that combines all of the fun of a demolition derby with all of the usefulness of serious research for your next vehicle purchase? No, you probably haven’t, but it exists. It’s the Consumer Reports crash test video player, loaded up with about 300 Insurance Institute for Highway Safety crash-test videos for various makes and models of cars. [More]

Your New Tires Could Be Six-Year-Old Death Traps

Your New Tires Could Be Six-Year-Old Death Traps

Those “new” tires of yours could be six-years old and ready to disintegrate on the highway. Tire rubber dries out after six years, but unlike in Europe and Asia, American companies are allowed to sell expired tires long after they turn into death donuts. A 20/20 investigation found that the “new” tires on sale at Sears and Walmart can be up to 12-years-old. Inside, how to tell when your tires were born…