Category Archives: distracted driving

U.S. Auto Fatalities Drop to Lowest level in More than 60 Years

The Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration – NHTSA – today released 2010 fatality and injury data showing highway deaths fell to 32,885 for the year, the lowest level for auto fatalities since 1949. What was termed a record-breaking decline in traffic deaths occurred as American drivers traveled nearly 46 billion more miles during the year, an increase of 1.6% compared to 2009. Continue reading

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Teaching Teens of Deadly Distracted Driving with Video Game?

The Department of Transportation has launched a new page on a redesigned website aimed at educating teenage drivers about the dangers of distracted driving, which is now responsible for about 5,500 deaths and 500,000 injures annually in the U.S. Continue reading

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DOT Distracted Driving Rule Bans Hand-Held Phone use by Commercial Drivers, but Allows Hands-Free Cell Phones

The latest DOT rule falls far short of a recommendation in September from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) to ban the use of all cell phones – hand-held and hands-free – by commercial drivers except in emergencies. NTSB made the recommendation after a horrific crash in Kentucky between an 18-wheeler and a van killed 11 people. Continue reading

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GM Claims Self Driving Vehicles Ready by 2020

Cars or trucks that can partially drive themselves will be available by the middle of the decade, with more sophisticated self driving vehicles coming by 2020, according to General Motors Vice President of Global Research and Development Alan Taub. Advances … Continue reading

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NTSB Wants Cell Phone Ban for Commercial Drivers

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has recommended banning the use of all types of cell phones by commercial drivers except in emergencies. The Safety Board said cell phone use by the driver of an 18-wheel semi truck was the … Continue reading

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Testing Connected Vehicles to See if They Connect with Drivers

A National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) report found that connected vehicle technology has the potential to address 81% of all unimpaired driver related crashes, but there is no real world data. Continue reading

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DOT’s LaHood Praises BMW as it Enables Distracted Driving?

BMW, the luxury brand that is in the process of becoming the first automobile manufacturer in the world to have voice-read e-mail messages inside its vehicles, has been singled out for praise by the U.S. Secretary of Transportation for claiming it is against texting and driving? Continue reading

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Toyota Adds Wrong-Way Driving Alert to Navigation Systems

In theory there is no reason why Japan’s largest automaker could not expand the use of the wrong-way driving alert to the U.S. and other large markets, where Toyota is struggling with a damaged safety reputation from stuck gas pedals and unintended acceleration recalls. Continue reading

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BMW Left Turn Assistant Looks at Oncoming Traffic for You

Left turn assistant is a complicated piece of engineering, which demonstrates the power of electronic sensors and software to do virtually anything. It also begs the question of how much safety via sophisticated devices is enough or too much, depending on your point of view. Continue reading

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Three Common Teen Driver Mistakes Lead to Fatal Crashes

Researchers analyzed a nationally-representative federal database of more than 800 crashes involving teen drivers and identified a few common “critical errors,” often one of the last in a chain of events leading up to a crash. Seventy-five percent of these crashes were due a critical teen driver error, with three common errors accounting for nearly half of all serious crashes. Continue reading

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Electronic Devices Gain in Importance for New Vehicle Buyers

NHTSA – in a states’ rights argument that goes back to at least the Civil War during the 1860s – is forbidden by Congress from regulating drivers on a national basis, that power is reserved for the individual states, whose legislators show little interest in outlawing the demonstrably dangerous devices in automobiles. Continue reading

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Microsoft and Toyota Partner on Next-Generation Telematics

Microsoft Corp. and Toyota Motor Corp. (TMC) today announced they have formed partnership and plan to build on Microsoft’s Windows Azure platform for TMC’s next-generation telematics services using the Windows Azure or cloud platform. Continue reading

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Chevrolet Colorado Show Truck Unveiled in Bangkok

Chevrolet today unveiled its Colorado Show Truck on the eve of the Bangkok International Auto Show, where it is making its global public debut.

The is said to be concept virtually identical to the next-generation Colorado mid-size pickup truck that goes on sale in Thailand later this year, and will eventually be on sale in the U.S. Continue reading

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Department of Transportation Releases New “Faces of Distracted Driving” Video. Deadly DD Epidemic Continues

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood today released the latest video in the U.S. Department of Transportation’s “Faces of Distracted Driving” series.

The video features Loren Vaillancourt, whose 21-year-old brother Kelson was killed in a 2009 distracted driving crash in Huron, South Dakota. Continue reading

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FocusDriven Distracted Driving PSA: 5,500; How Many More?

FocusDriven, the first national non-profit organization advocating for victims of distracted driving has released new Public Service Announcement or PSA titled, “5,500; How Many More?”

The PSA highlights that nearly 5,500 people are killed and half a million more are injured in distraction-related crashes annually. The auto industry and electronics makers whose devices are enabling distracted driving thus far show no interest in helping to curb this growing safety problem. And the U.S. Congress has forbidden federal safety regulators form promulgating national standards or rules. Continue reading

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