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USA Today Developing new features in vehicle technology is an expensive endeavor, and usually the latest innovations were only available in high-priced cars. Features such as a navigation system, stability control and even traffic-adaptive cruise control are commonplace on even budget models. Technology advances aren’t limited to driving automation and safety. Many innovations in luxury cars pertain to passenger convenience and pampering. Edmunds says, “There’s a lot of tech in luxury vehicles and more on the way. If you’re an early adopter on a budget, just wait a few years. Most legitimately useful features will eventually be available on more affordable cars.” Read the article at USA Today. |
The Detroit Bureau New vehicle buyers have a lot to consider when determining what kind of car they can afford. The average monthly car payment is more than $500 now and insurance rates have jumped by more than a third between 2010 and 2016, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Odds are, the more expensive the vehicle is, the more it will cost to repair it in the event of a crash or theft. IIHS says that insurance companies make claim payments of roughly $900 on average per vehicle. Some vehicles get into more accidents, and some have higher payouts for each accident. Read the article at The Detroit Bureau. |
The Drive Used car shoppers need to watch for unscrupulous salespeople or independent sellers who may lie about flood damage. According to Carfax, 325,510 flooded vehicles were put back in use in 2017, including 12,166 in Philadelphia, 10,037 in Chicago and 6,995 in Detroit—large cities not traditionally known for excessive flooding. “People with bad intentions buy cars that have been totaled by floods and move them to other parts of the country,” Richard Reina, the product training director for aftermarket auto retailer CARiD, explained. This process, meant to remove a salvage designation from a car’s documentation, is called title washing. There’s a good description of the scam on the Fraud Guides site. Read the article at The Drive. |
S&P Global Top officials from California, Maryland and Connecticut have vowed to take whatever legal action necessary to preserve their tougher tailpipe rules if the Trump administration rolls back federal fuel economy standards. The US Environmental Protection Agency and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will hold hearings on the proposed rollback next week. Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh said, “It seems very clear from everything the EPA has done and everything the president has said that they’ve reached a conclusion that they are going to roll back these standards and they’re just hell-bent on doing it. They’re unwilling or uninterested in hearing other points of view, looking at the science, looking at the facts. If they continue to head down that path, we’ll end up in court.” Read the article at S&P Global. |
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Keeping Your Fleet in Shape
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Keeping your vehicles and drivers safe, productive and on the road is essential to achieving your organization’s sales and service goals By Bill Jones, Managed Maintenance, Element Fleet Management
So, what can you do to keep your fleet in top shape? 1. Know the importance of cost savings with preventive maintenance
Properly maintained vehicles reduce unscheduled repairs and downtime. Preventive maintenance may include oil changes, tire rotation/inspection and general vehicle safety checks. READ MORE to learn the 6 tips that will help you keep your fleet in top shape! |
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Bloomberg After years of testing, with hundreds of cars and vans deployed on public streets and private facilities, even the best autonomous-driving efforts still struggle with inclement weather. The ultimate hurdle to the next phase of driverless technology might not come from algorithms and artificial intelligence—it might be fog and rain. WaveSense has built a radar system to scan what’s below the road, down where there’s no snow at all, rather than parse wintry mix on top. A winter full of snow, and even the occasional obstinate seagull, will help with product development. “Eventually, we expect this to be something that’s on every vehicle that drives autonomously,” Tarik Bolat, WaveSense’s chief executive officer says. Read the article at Bloomberg. |
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Forbes Legacy car rental companies are branching into ride-sharing — often in the most unlikely places. Princeton set up its program, called Revise Your Ride, to encourage faculty and staff to leave their cars at home. These are signs of a more sweeping change that’s about to overtake a $30-billion-a-year business. It will result in what only a few years ago was unthinkable: a radical new transportation paradigm, where the lines between car ownership, rental, and lease are blurred beyond recognition. In that world, cars will drive themselves and Apple, General Motors, Hertz, and Google will be in the same business. Read the article at Forbes. |
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