Safety

The EconoDriver and SafeDriver by Lemur are wireless vehicle monitors that record driving performance to a key fob display to help drivers be more efficient and safe.

The key fob displays are battery powered and can be mounted on the dashboard for continuous monitoring of reports. Both units ship with a sensor that plugs into your vehicle's OBD-II port to wirelessly transmit information from your vehicle's sensors to the key fob.

The SafeDriver displays the maximum speed, distance traveled, and sudden braking incidents to help parents keep tabs on new drivers. The device locks with a PIN to … Read more

Russian design studio Art Lebedev calls this simple invention--a camera that takes images from the front of a truck to show it on screens in the back--Transparentius. I call it geeneeuzz.

I don't know why the drawing below shows a tank at the front of the truck, but I guess that in Russia people drive T-90s like people drive Fords in the U.S. I wish the technology was so cheap that this could be implemented for real, because I'm sure being able to see what's in the blind zone before switching lanes would save a … Read more

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's Top Safety Pick award for 2010 goes to 19 cars and eight SUVs. And for the first time, the vehicles were tested on roof strength, to measure protection in a rollover. Top Safety Pick winners also must have electronic stability control, which research shows significantly reduces crash risk. This is the second time the Institute has tightened criteria since announcing the first recipients in 2005.

According to the IIHS report out today, Subaru is the only manufacturer with a winner in all four vehicle classes. The automaker earns five awards for 2010, followed … Read more

Flashlights are becoming more and more sophisticated, as well as rather expensive. Case in point: the upcoming mPower Emergency Illuminator, which made its press debut this week at an event in New York. Designed by the Porsche Design Studio to be "a stylish product with emergency utility, it will cost somewhere between $250 and $300 when it comes out in March of 2010.

Aside from the fetching design, the mPower Emergency Illuminator boasts some innovative battery technology. One battery "tube" stores two CR123 batteries, while the other has what's called an OnCommand Reserve Battery that the … Read more

TOKYO--A senior Toyota executive last week denied statements by U.S. safety authorities that the company issued "inaccurate and misleading information" about a safety recall.

Toyota's recall of 3.8 million vehicles in the United States advised drivers to remove floor mats that may jam the gas pedal and cause unintended acceleration.

In a statement last week, Toyota said the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found "no defect exists in vehicles with properly installed floor mats." In fact, NHTSA said, Toyota vehicles have a "very serious defect."

Toyota Executive Vice President Yukitoshi Funo … Read more

Ford announced a new seat belt innovation on Thursday: seat belts that inflate during a collision. Designed for rear-seat passengers, Ford claims the new seat belts spread collision force over five times the area of a traditional seat belt when inflated. In a crash, the seat belts limit head and neck movement, which should reduce injury.

Ford also says the extra bulk of these seat belts gives them a padded feeling, making them more comfortable, so rear-seat passengers are more likely to wear them. Current usage statistics show that 82 percent of front seat occupants wear seat belts, but only … Read more

I was given my first set of jumper cables at the same time I received my first car. Before setting me loose on the world, my father gave me a very serious speech about the dangers of improperly jump-starting a vehicle. I was warned of potential electrocution, sparks igniting gasoline fires, and--most seriously--acid spewing battery explosions if the cables weren't connected in just the right way and in just the right order. Even armed with this sacred knowledge, I still throw sparks every time I jump-start a car, just for kicks. Sorry, dad.

However, most drivers didn't get … Read more

A tide of Toyota owners report incidents of sudden, unintended acceleration, according to a story by ABC News. Toyota attributes these incidents to improperly installed or wrong-sized floor mats jamming the accelerator down, but the ABC story cites owners' fears of electronic throttle controls. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has investigated and discounted problems with electronic throttle control.

The ABC story includes harrowing accounts from owners. One driver claims her Prius "suddenly shot up to 90 miles an hour." Given the Prius' acceleration, she would have had plenty of time to react. The proper thing to do … Read more

Editors' note: Ford has clarified that its open platform is still in the prealpha testing stages. The article has been updated to reflect this information.

When Ford and Microsoft opened up their joint Sync platform for its own applications and updates, we wondered when the day would come that third-party developers would be given a crack at the in-vehicle infomatics interface. Well, that day may be on the horizon. Ford announced that it is testing an open-source platform to could be used in the future to develop applications that make use of Sync to connect to social networks in the … Read more