2013

Airbag issues continue to plague automakers.  On the heels of a 1.8 million vehicle recall issued by Chrysler and Toyota, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has now opened an investigation into 320,000 Honda Odyssey Minivans of the 2003 and 2004 model years.  Complaints to the agency suggest that the airbags on these vehicles can… read more

Yesterday, we brought you word of an interesting wrinkle in a recalled requested by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration:  Chrysler, the target of the directive, has refused to agree to the agency’s order.  That creates a conundrum wherein consumers have been informed of a possible safety defect but have little recourse to do anything… read more

In most cases, when the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration asks a company to voluntarily issue a recall, compliance isn’t far off.  In fact, you have to go all the way back to 1996 to find an instance where an automaker decided to challenge the directives of the agency. Chrysler was at the center of… read more

Increasingly worried about the common nature of crashes related to fatigued driving, particularly in the mining industry, Caterpillar will begin offering drivers a $20,000 system known as Driver Safety Solution that keeps track of signals which could be indicative of a driver falling asleep. Different from other systems in that it doesn’t require any additional… read more

Distraction is one of the most important topics on the minds of safety advocates and lawmakers across the country.  With citizens across the world more connected than ever before, distracted driving has become a commonplace occurrence along the roadways.  But the Transportation Department has just announced a measure that aims to curtail this threat. The… read more

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration may soon reconfigure its ratings system slightly to take into account how certain subsets of the population might react during a crash.  When a new automobile comes onto the market, the NHTSA rates it as part of something known as the New Car Assessment Program.  Since 1978, a vehicle… read more

As automobiles become more complex, so do the reasons for recalls.  Today’s modern motor vehicle operates by way of a complicated series of processes interwoven together, and if anything goes wrong with the vehicle’s software or a mechanical component, the results can be disastrous. A new article looks at this phenomenon in greater detail by… read more

Recently, the way the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration investigates and classifies recalls has been called into question.  Although recalls issued following an investigation were said to be at nearly an all-time high last year, some wonder whether that has less to do with improved methods and more to do with new accounting practices. That’s… read more

Additional hybrid and electric vehicles are seen along the highway every year.  Regular automobiles are getting better gas mileage than ever.  The newest vehicles on the road are equipped with safety systems that do such science fiction-seeming things as hit the brakes to avoid a crash or alert the driver when he or she is… read more

At this time of the year, you never know when a winter storm is going to move through parts of California.  That’s why you must always be prepared for such an occurrence.  When snowy and slick conditions threaten the safety of roadways, it becomes imperative to know what to do to protect both oneself and… read more

A new article discusses the prevalence of companies touting the latest and greatest safety features of automobiles at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada.  One such company that looks to revolutionize vehicle safety is QNX, a software firm.  That company is looking into the possibility of placing a GPS on the dashboard as… read more

Yesterday, we talked about how Californians traveling to areas of the country affected by snow could stay safe while on the roads.  Taking the proper precautions behind the wheel is absolutely essential amid streets that have been compromised by buildups of snow and ice. But one thing we must also consider is that in addition… read more