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Green car advocate proves first hand how small cars aren't deathtraps

Despite numerous positive crash test results and assurances from both manufacturers and safety organizations, we still hear people say they'll never trade their bank-safe SUV for one of those little tin cans on wheels. This makes some people wonder what it would take to change folks' minds about automotive safety. A first-hand account from Nick Chambers, an admitted greenie who blogs for gas2.0.org, slammed his Yaris into a dirt embankment then rolled it three times. He not only lived, but walked away from his crumpled Toyota with little more than a bump and a really sore neck. He also admits that before his little off-road excursion in the Yaris, he wasn't completely sold on small car safety. But now he says, "Yes. Yes I would trust my family to a small fuel-efficient car, and I'm miraculously alive and mostly uninjured... so no, it's not a death trap."
posted : 10/27/2008 @4:15:53 PM
School buses to get seat belts

My wife and I thoroughly trained our oldest daughter on seat belt safety, and it got to the point where she would scream at the top of her lungs if one of us didn't buckle our belts. When she first stepped foot on a school bus, she was terrified to learn that there were no seat belts and didn't understand how school buses were the exception to the seat belt rule. After many years of extensive study, however, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is changing that, at least for buses weighing under 10,000 lbs. The NHTSA's findings are the same as a 2002 study that smaller buses should receive belts and seat backs should be raised to 24 inches, but nothing was done about the findings back then. A series of bus crashes since has helped build the case to finally require the seat belts on certain buses and taller seat backs for them all. Part of the reason for inaction was that adding seat belts would decrease seating capacity by 17% while also adding $40-$50 per seat to bus costs. With 25 million children riding 500,000 buses, that adds up to $100 million in annual costs that would, according to reports, save roughly one life per year. Statistics show that about 5 children die each year in school bus accidents, which represents .1 deaths per 100 million miles traveled. Kids that travel by bike to school die at a far greater rate of 12.2 per 100 million miles traveled, and kids who walk to school die at a rate of 8.7 per 100 million. The NHTSA's ruling goes into effect November 2011, which is five months before my oldest daughter rides the bus for the last time and gets into her own car.
posted : 10/16/2008 @6:05:59 PM
Ford unveils radar-based Collision Warning with Brake Support system

Just a day after unveiling its innovative and controversial MyKey system, Ford has come back with another piece of new technology, this time safety related, that will start appearing on some 2009 models. It's called Collision Warning with Brake Support, and it uses the radar system that makes Adaptive Cruise Control possible to detect what's in front of the car. If the system senses contact with something might happen, most likely another car, it will at first sound an audible alarm and activate a warning light. At the same time it will "precharge" the brakes and activate a brake-assist function in case the driver needs to slam on the brakes. While Ford doesn't give the details about what's exactly happening, it sounds as if this radar system will monitor the distance between your Ford and what's in front of you, and if a collision is deemed imminent will effectively get the brakes ready for a panic stop. We're told the technology will begin on appearing on select Ford and Lincoln models for 2009, along with other radar-based technologies like the aforementioned Adaptive Cruise Control that debuted on the 2009 Lincoln MKS and BLIS, a blind spot warning system.
more ...
posted : 10/13/2008 @11:02:55 PM
Volvo XC60 comes from Sweden with "leaves"

Vehicle sales are brutal everywhere of late, but Volvo has been tanking long before any industry-wide slowdown took place. That makes the March 2009 arrival of the XC60 crossover that much more important, as it's the first all-new Volvo (besides the low volume C30) in many years. Since customers have been turning away from the Volvo brand of late, marketing will play a big part of the XC60's success. Volvo has unleashed its new campaign for the CUV already with the tagline, "The new Volvo XC60. From Sweden with löv." We get it. Volvo is stressing its Swedish roots in marketing its new vehicle. Hey, it works for IKEA, right? Volvo even utilized the Swedish spelling for 'love' to give its new crossover more Euro appeal. Our tipster Caitlin didn't think it works at all. The reason? Löv means 'leaves' in Swedish and has nothing to do with that certain brand of affection that makes our cheeks blush. According to Caitlin, Lov without the umlaut means 'vacation' or 'break', which sounds like a better advertising angle for a CUV than leaves, but just doesn't look as "Swedish" in print. The proper translation of 'love' into Swedish is "kärlek", so when you begin seeing the XC60 on U.S. streets next March, just remember that it comes from Sweden with kärlek.
posted : 10/5/2008 @5:34:45 PM
Toyota develops new rear window airbag for small cars

Safety technology has improved by leaps and bounds over the last few decades, and just about every automaker now knows how to score a five star rating from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Toyota is looking to keep the stars coming by developing a new rear window airbag that will be standard equipment on its upcoming iQ micro car. A quick glance at micro-vehicles like the iQ shows that there is very little space between the back seat and the rear window, which means there won't be as much metal to absorb the impact of a rear collision. With Toyota's new rear window airbag, the rear air bag is ejected from the roof lining during a fender bender. Toyota says it will help protect the heads and necks back seat passengers, which is all the more important in smaller vehicles like the iQ. In addition to this new bag, Toyota wants to improve its safety reputation by making side curtain and shield airbags standard for all of itsmodels.
posted : 10/5/2008 @2:41:48 PM
Nissan looks to the Bumblebees for tips on crash avoidance

Volvo has its locusts, Nissan has its bees. With 300-degree vision via compound eyes and instantaneous reflexes, bees don't run into things the way cars do. Nissan wants to halve the rate of car crashes by 2015, versus the company's 1995 tally, and is using bees to come up with a new generation of crash-avoidance systems that will be able to respond to obstacles in ways superior to humans. Whether bees or locusts, the key to making the technology work has yet to be created: allowing the car to act on information instantly, without complex processing. Information from the bees' eyes doesn't get kicked around their noggins first, it goes straight to the wings which immediately react to keep them out of trouble. More simply: they don't think about what they need to do -- they just do it. When bees do that, they end up unhurt. When humans do that, they end up on the evening news. To start down that road, Nissan's made a Biomimetic Car Robot Drive (BR23C) that knows how to act like your annoying sibling: it goes around you if it thinks you're in the way. Yet, even when the basic technology can be transferred to vehicles, there is still the issue of dimensions: the BR23C can rotate in any direction to sidestep barriers, but your car has a narrower range of options. Until the guy next to you can also respond instantly -- or we're all driving Nissans and Volvos -- we'll have to see how the technology shakes out.
posted : 10/3/2008 @7:53:32 PM
Volvo looks to locusts to prevent accidents

If you think your morning commute looks (and feels) like a bunch of insects randomly swarming toward a multitude of random destinations, you'd be mostly right. But only mostly. Research by the Insect Vision Laboratory shows that like your fellow rush-hour drivers, swarming African locusts are busy calculating the position, direction and speed of the other travelers around them. Unlike all those other drivers, African locusts never run into each other. We'd be willing to argue that's definitive proof most drivers are dumber than common insects. Volvo, however, sees more than just the obvious. Instead, they see a possible way to keep all those clueless drivers safe by studying just how those locusts are able to avoid collisions. But there's a lot of work to do before the automaker can put nature to work on the streets. The researchers theorize that the bugs can easily miss hitting each other because they're somehow able to send information straight from their sensory organs to their wings, completely bypassing their simplistic brains. That ability to instantly translate data into action keeps the locusts crash free. The problem is that currently automotive technology can't match the locusts' data-processing talents. So for at least the immediate future, have a little sympathy for those other guys out there. They actually are less intelligent than the bugs stuck in your grille.
posted : 10/2/2008 @4:34:28 PM
Only Honda: New i-SRS Airbag System and Bird's Eye camera

What other automaker would spend the time and expense of developing a new airbag just because, you know, airbags could be better? The same one who developed a new rail car for the same reason. The Japanese automaker has developed a new airbag it claims will give drivers better protection in accidents. The shaped bag uses a spiral seam to induce more even inflation, which provides a larger surface area and creates uniform pressure around the bag more quickly than in a conventional airbag system. Thus, the driver is cushioned sooner. The i-SRS system also uses a gas release valve that helps control airbag deployment and pressure, and holds the gas inside the bag until a preset time. The technology is already slated to appear on the Honda Life in Japan this November. Outside the vehicle, Honda will be adding a new multi-view camera to the upcoming JDM Odyssey, much like Nissan's Around View Monitor. Four wide-angle CCD cameras will be placed in the front, back, and on the side mirrors. Each view can be seen individually or combined for a computer generated aerial shot of the car's movements. Because they're wide angle, Honda has also incorporated a view with the front camera that extends the driver's line of sight in low-visibility intersections, such as when exiting a parking garage (see right pic). It sounds similar to the front-mounted camera system on the Rolls-Royce Phantom. Unfortunately there's no word on when either technology will come to the U.S.
posted : 9/26/2008 @7:30:48 AM
Same old shtick: IIHS wants to delay licenses for teensIt seems every year or two the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety publishes a study showing why 16-year-olds shouldn't be trusted with a driver's license. Yet every year, only New Jersey withholds the privilege of four-wheeled freedom until the age of 17. In this year's report, the IIHS contrasts the rate of fatalities per 100,000 teenage drivers in New Jersey and Connecticut, the latter of which allows 16-year-old drivers. The teen death rate for accidents in Jersey was 4.4 per 100,000, while Connecticut had 20.7 deaths per 100,000 teenage drivers. Those numbers aren't a statistical anomaly, either. Earlier studies of New Jersey and Connecticut revealed similar fatality statistics, and the IIHS concludes that Connecticut could reduce teen fatalities by 66% if the legal driving age was changed to 17. Even though data shows lower-aged drivers increase injury and death, most states still aren't interested in raising the age to 17. Florida, Massachusetts, Illinois, and Georgia all tried to increase the legal driving age to no avail, and other states aren't even trying. We're torn on this issue because we remember how exciting it was to receive our driver's license at 16, and our parents were happy to end their chauffeur service. Let us know how old you were when you got your license, and give us your thoughts on what you think the minimum driving age should be in your state.
posted : 9/22/2008 @11:35:53 PM
IIHS praises Ford Focus for cheap crash repairs

Reminding us once again that there's more than meets the eye when shopping for a vehicle are recent impact tests performed by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety that measure how much it costs to fix a vehicle after after a low-speed accident. Sure, we're all interested in safety and styling, but we should also be concerned with how much these low-speed impacts will cost to repair. The winner of the testing was the Ford Focus, which scored light damage all the way around. The IIHS heaped praise on Ford for designing a bumper that can truly take a bump -- a novel idea. Amazingly, some small cars like the Hyundai Elantra, Toyota Prius and VW Rabbit cost up to a third of the car's worth to fix from damage resulting from a minor impact. That's a big problem for any car, but especially so for those sold on the merits of economy. To prove that it's not too difficult for auto manufacturers to design a better bumper, the IIHS made a few simple changes to a Prius that didn't affect the looks of the car. After retesting, it made it through the impact tests with a fraction of the damage. For the complete rundown on the testing procedures and results, click past the break.
posted : 9/22/2008 @11:32:20 PM
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