The Latest Technology Will Soon Be Available on Affordable Cars
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.
New Car buyers Beware – Insurance Premiums on the Rise
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.
Used Car Shoppers Must Be Aware of Flood Damaged Vehicles
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.
California, Maryland, Connecticut Ready to Fight US Fuel Economy Rollback
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.
Weather is a Problem for Next Generation Vehicles, in Multiple Ways
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.
