Just over half of 2018 model vehicles evaluated by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety are available with headlights that do an adequate job of lighting the road at night and limiting glare for oncoming drivers, but most good-rated headlights are optional or bundled with other features that can raise the price of the vehicle.
Since IIHS released its first headlight ratings for passenger vehicles in 2016, most manufacturers have focused on improving this key safety component. That year, only 2 of 95 headlight systems on 2016-model vehicles evaluated earned a good rating.
For the 2018 model year, the best-available headlights on 32 of 165 models evaluated earn the highest rating of good, and the best-available headlights on 58 models earn the second-highest rating of acceptable. Thirty-two models have only marginal-rated headlights, while poor-rated headlights are the only ones available for 43 models.
Volvo Cars presents a unique, complete system solution that makes it possible to integrate self-driving cars into real traffic – with ordinary people in the driver’s seat.
“We are entering uncharted territory in the field of autonomous driving,” says Dr Peter Mertens, Senior Vice President Research and Development of Volvo Car Group. “Taking the exciting step to a public pilot, with the ambition to enable ordinary people to sit behind the wheel in normal traffic on public roads, has never been done before.”
To view the Multimedia News Release, go to http://www.multivu.com/players/English/7443851-volvo-first-self-driving-car-system/
Last December, nearly one-third of all car crash fatalities involved a drunk driver, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Today, to help make our roads safer during the holiday season, the Television Bureau of Advertising (TVB) launched the 13th annual “Project Roadblock” initiative, in which local broadcast TV stations donate airtime to support NHTSA and the Ad Council’s “Buzzed Driving is Drunk Driving” PSA (public service advertising) campaign.
To help the campaign’s message reach those who could benefit most, the Ad Council is conducting a special push to TV stations in the 10 states that accounted for 53% of all alcohol-impaired driving fatalities in 2015: Texas, California, Florida, North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, Illinois, and South Carolina.
To view the multimedia release go to:
http://www.multivu.com/players/English/8003951-nhtsa-ad-council-tvb-anti-drunk-driving-psa/
Until recently, a one-size-fits-all approach for firefighter respiratory protection might have been considered the norm. However, no two fire stations are alike, and each has differing needs, preferences and expectations of their protective equipment. This understanding served as the key driver behind the development of a new and innovative self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) platform – called the M1 SCBA – that was unveiled today at the 125th French Firefighters Congress by MSA Safety Incorporated (NYSE: MSA), a global leader in firefighter safety.
To view the multimedia release go to:
https://www.multivu.com/players/English/8404751-msa-m1-scba-firefighter-breathing-apparatus/
The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence launched today a powerful, new public awareness campaign in concert with National Youth Violence Prevention Week, April 7-11. The campaign, called SPEAK UP, educates students about the important roles they can play in preventing violence, and includes public service announcements, posters and poster contests, interactive BuzzFeed-style quizzes, pledge drive and resource/activity kits.
To view the Multimedia News Release, go to http://www.multivu.com/mnr/64672-speak-up
Vigilant Solutions, a global image recognition and analytics company serving sovereign nations, municipalities, and law enforcement agencies, announced today a new parking solution that leverages its license plate recognition technology and extensive vehicle location data to assist parking agencies and municipal parking units in enforcing policies, collecting outstanding fines and locating repeat violators.
Vigilant’s license plate recognition cameras and software have been trusted by law enforcement agencies throughout the U.S. and across the globe for more than a decade to identify and locate suspect vehicles and solve crimes faster. The company is now using this technology to develop a license plate-enabled parking (LEP) enforcement solution that, coupled with its expansive commercial data network, empowers parking enforcement to work more efficiently with local law enforcement to quickly address violations involving on-street spaces and off-street lots.
To view the multimedia release go to:
https://www.multivu.com/players/English/8134352-vigilant-solution-license-plate-recognition-parking-enforcement/
Three more midsize SUVs achieved good or acceptable ratings from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety in the latest round of small overlap front crash testing, but many models, including three newly rated SUVs from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and one from Hyundai, continue to struggle with the test.
Volvo Cars, the premium carmaker, will bring a new standard of safety and user experience to the small SUV premium segment with the launch of the new Volvo XC40 this autumn.
Developed around the challenges of modern city life, the XC40 aims to make the daily urban commute less stressful and more enjoyable, as drivers in the segment can now rely on the award-winning safety, connectivity and infotainment technologies known from Volvo’s acclaimed new 90- and 60 Series cars.
“The XC40 is our first car in this rapidly growing segment and has a clear focus on navigating today’s hectic city environments. Building on Volvo’s heritage as the leader in safety, the new XC40 will offer the best possible safety standards combined with an easy-to-use interface and convenient connected services,” said Håkan Samuelsson, president and chief executive.
To view the multimedia release go to:
https://www.multivu.com/players/uk/8170551-volvo-cars-xc40-suv-designed-city-living/
The Toyota Prius v is the only midsize car out of 31 evaluated to earn a good rating in the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s first-ever headlight ratings.
The best available headlights on 11 cars earn an acceptable rating, while nine only reach a marginal rating. Ten of the vehicles can’t be purchased with anything other than poor-rated headlights.
A vehicle’s price tag is no guarantee of decent headlights. Many of the poor-rated headlights belong to luxury vehicles.
The ability to see the road ahead, along with any pedestrians, bicyclists or obstacles, is an obvious essential for drivers. However, government standards for headlights, based on laboratory tests, allow huge variation in the amount of illumination that headlights provide in actual on-road driving. With about half of traffic deaths occurring either in the dark or in dawn or dusk conditions, improved headlights have the potential to bring about substantial reductions in fatalities.
Holiday car thieves had their busiest day in 2014 on, ironically, Labor Day, stealing 2,200 vehicles according to new data released today by the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB). NICB’s 2014 Annual Holiday Vehicle Theft Report analyzes data from the National Crime Information Center (NCIC), which showed a total of 695,246 vehicle thefts for the year.
After Labor Day, New Year’s Day was the next most active holiday with 2,011 thefts. Halloween came in third with 2,010 thefts followed by Memorial Day with 1,933 thefts. Independence Day rounds out the top five holidays for 2014 with 1,877 thefts.
The holidays with the fewest thefts in 2014 were Christmas Day with 1,225 thefts and Thanksgiving with 1,384 thefts.
To view the multimedia release go to:
http://www.multivu.com/players/English/7523155-nicb-holiday-vehicle-theft-report/
Not a single small SUV out of 21 tested earns a good rating in the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s headlight evaluations, and only four are available with acceptable-rated headlights.
Among the 21 vehicles, there are 47 different headlight combinations available. More than two-thirds of them are rated poor, making this group of vehicles even more deficient when it comes to lighting than the midsize cars that were the first to be rated earlier this year.
Headlight performance in today’s vehicles varies widely. Government standards are based on laboratory tests, which don’t accurately gauge performance in real-world driving. The issue merits attention because about half of traffic deaths occur either in the dark or around dawn or dusk.
As with midsize cars, the IIHS evaluations of small SUVs showed that a vehicle’s price tag doesn’t correspond to the quality of headlights. More modern lighting types, including high-intensity discharge (HID) and LED lamps, and curve-adaptive systems, which swivel in the direction of steering, also are no guarantee of good performance.
Amid increasing reports of sexual assaults among college students, the Integrated Innovation Institute at Carnegie Mellon University is applying its distinctive innovation approach to accelerate marketable solutions to combat acquaintance/date rape. Two novel product prototypes, targeted to the college population and designed by graduate-student teams, employ mobile technology to galvanize bystander intervention and engender shared community responsibility.
To view the multimedia assets associated with this release, please click: http://www.multivu.com/players/English/7281051-carnegie-mellon-integrated-innovation-institute-students-innovate-against-rape/
