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SAFETY DRIVING * USA - Making Cars Safer
The National Highway Traffic Administration's incentive to change: "New Car Assessment (NCAP) Program"
* Cars' Safety
New York,NY,USA -The New York Times, Automotive News, by JOHN R. QUAIN -October 12, 2010: ... Many car manufacturers offer collision warning systems that use radar to detect an imminent crash and then chime and flash lights at the driver. But the most ambitious — and impressive — automotive safety technology introduced this year is Volvo’s pedestrian detection system, first appearing on the 2011 S60... Using a combination of radar and video camera sensors, the detection system can pick out people (and cyclists) near the moving car. If it believes that a pedestrian is about to step in front of the car, it will warn the driver... Better still, if a pedestrian does suddenly appear in the car’s path — and the inattentive driver does nothing — the car sounds a series of warnings and then brakes the car to a complete stop. It works at speeds up to 22 miles per hour; at higher speeds, it will slow the S60 down but will not be able to prevent an impact...
* How do you drive your car, really?
New York,NY,USA -The Wall Street Journal, by Joseph B. White -October 13, 2010: -- For about 100 years, that question hasn't been very relevant for U.S. car buyers. It didn't matter too much whether you drove for long distances or short, multi-stop drives, for instance. Nearly all passenger vehicles sold in the U.S. ran on some form of petroleum, usually gasoline. They could operate for several hundred miles between fill-ups and gas stations were everywhere. So there was no question of whether you'd find the right fuel at your final destination... The proliferation of green alternatives to the internal combustion engine will compel consumers and car dealers to have more in-depth conversations about the way different cars can be used, and what kind of car they truly need... The trouble is, many consumers are confused about those choices. About half of 2,242 adults surveyed recently for Mercedes by Harris Interactive said they're interested in buying an alternative fuel vehicle—such as a hybrid, hydrogen-fuel cell, diesel or all-electric car... But only about 35% of those surveyed said they know which technology is best suited for certain types of driving. Some 71% of those surveyed said they don't know much about the differences among the different approaches to reducing or eliminating gasoline as a motor fuel... Auto makers may not want to settle on a silver bullet yet. But consumers could decide on their own to award silver-bullet status to a technology anyway, rather than cope with bewildering or incompatible options. Sony Betamax video-recorders are curios for a reason. And just as Sony couldn't persuade consumers to stick with Betamax, Daimler can't fight the market indefinitely. "If nobody purchases these vehicles," says Mr. Simon, "the technology will not be developed"...
* USA - How To Drive Safely At Night
You can't control nature at work, but by adjusting your car and your driving habits, you can cut the risk of becoming a night-time statistic...Washington,DC,USA -The Car Connection, by Marty Padgett -October 25, 2010: ... A new survey says that's a daunting prospect to many drivers driving entirely at night. The light-bulb experts Sylvania, with KRC Research, polled more than a thousand adults last month and found that more than half of them wished they could see the road ahead better at night. Almost 1/5 of those polled also said they've avoided driving at night, over concerns with vision and visibility. By the firms' calculations, that's 37 million people missing out on nighttime fun behind the wheel, with half of that number being people under 55 years old, when their vision shouldn't be cutting into driving. Being afraid of driving in the dark is also more common with women: 24 percent of women, versus 12 percent of men, reported staying home instead of venturing out after dusk... Short of arming yourself with klieg lights and miles of reflective tape, what can you do to make yourself more at ease with nighttime driving? Our five ways to get more comfortable--and more safe--when you're driving after hours:
- - Make sure your headlights are working properly...
- - Make sure your headlights are clean and properly aimed...
- - Use your high beams more often--but responsibly...
- - If you're on the frightened end of the night-driving spectrum, these features could be your automotive Xanax.
- - Dim all the lights--and the distractions... because distractions aimed at one sensory organ can interfere with another... (Photo by John Trainor)
Labels: safety driving
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