• News
  • Guides
  • Reviews
  • Media
  • About
  • News
  • Guides
  • Reviews
  • Media
  • About
Sign up Now (For Free)

Sign up for our newsletter and receive the latest automotive news in your inbox!

Invalid email address
We promise not to spam you. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Thanks for subscribing!
News
Read Now
  • All News
  • Automakers
  • Automobiles
  • Auto Shows
  • Business
  • EVs & Environment
  • Guides
  • Lawsuits/Legal
  • Regulatory
  • Ride-Sharing
  • Safety & Recalls
  • Technology
Recent
  • Most Popular Car on TikTok isn’t a Car: 2022 Ford Maverick
  • Rivian Confirms Plans to Meet 25K Production Goal
  • Will Apple Achieve What Automakers Can’t?
  • Q&A: Tristan Murphy, Cadillac Lyriq Interior Design Manager
  • Sales Battle Royal Rages in Pickup Segment
  • Toyota is No. 3 — Third Automaker to Pass EV Tax Credit Threshold
  • Ford Gains Ground on Strong June Sales, Up 31.5% YOY
  • Q&A: Cadillac Lyriq Exterior Design Manager Josh Thurber
  • After 18% Sales Slide, Tesla No Longer World’s Best-Selling EV Brand
  • Get Updated on Cars, EVs and More with the Headlight News Podcast
Editor’s Choice
    Reviews
    Read Now
    • All Reviews
    • Classic Cars
    • Concept Cars
    • Convertibles
    • Coupes
    • Crossovers/CUVs
    • Diesel
    • Hot hatches
    • Hybrids
    • Luxury Vehicles
    • Minivans
    • Muscle Cars
    • Pickups
    • Sedans
    • Sports Cars
    • Super Cars
    • SUVs
    Recent Reviews
    • A Week With: 2022 Lexus NX 350h
    • A Week With: 2022 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xe Overland
    • A Week With: 2022 Volkswagen Tiguan SE R-Line Black
    • First Drive: 2023 Cadillac Lyriq
    • First Drive: 2022 Ford Bronco Everglades Edition
    • A Week With: 2022 Mazda3 2.5 S AWD Hatchback
    • First Drive: 2023 Honda HR-V
    • First Drive: 2022 Ford Bronco Raptor
    • A Week With: 2022 GMC Terrain AT4 AWD
    • A Week With: 2022 Cadillac Escalade Sport
    Editor’s Choice
      Guides
      Car Warranty
      • Endurance Warranty Reviews
      • BMW Extended Warranty
      • Extended Warranty For Cars Over 100k Miles
      • Extended Car Warranty Cost
      • Subaru Extended Warranty
      • CarShield Reviews
      • CarShield Cost
      • Aftermarket Car Warranty
      • CARCHEX Warranty Reviews
      • Reputable Extended Car Warranty Companies
      • Used Car Warranty Companies
      • Best Car Warranty
      • Is CarShield A Scam?
      • Mercedes Extended Warranty
      • CarShield Plans
      Insurance
      • How To Identify A Car Insurance Company
      • Geico Mechanical Breakdown Insurance
      • How Far Back Does A Car Insurance Company Look
      • Mechanical Breakdown Insurance For Used Cars
      • State Farm Mechanical Breakdown Insurance
      • Mechanical Breakdown Insurance From Progressive
      • Dollar A Day Insurance
      • Auto Insurance For SSI Recipients
      • Car Insurance Rates After A Suspended License
      • Auto Insurance For Salvage Vehicles
      • Average Cost of Dodge Ram 1500 Car Insurance
      • Car Insurance Florida
      • Full Coverage Auto Insurance
      • GrubHub Insurance
      • Amazon Delivery Auto Insurance
      Shipping
      • Car Shipping Companies
      • uShip Reviews
      • Auto Shipping From California To Hawaii
      • Montway Auto Transport Reviews
      • Cheap Car Shipping
      • Easy Auto Ship Reviews
      • Auto Shipping Miami
      • Auto Shipping To Alaska
      • Car Shipping Cost
      • Auto Shipping Hawaii
      • Auto Shipping Puerto Rico
      • Sherpa Auto Transport Reviews
      • Auto Shipping Atlanta
      • Auto Shipping Boston
      • Auto Shipping. Chicago
      About
      • About Us
      • Contact Us
      • Terms of Use
      • Privacy Policy
      • Affiliate Disclosure
      • Sitemap
      TheDetroitBureau.com

      More than just “another” place to find news, reviews, spy shots, commentary, features, and guides about the auto industry. TheDetroitBureau doesn’t stop with the press releases or confuse a few lines of opinion with insightful, in-depth reporting.

      Contact Us

      Like what you see? Have some ideas for making The Detroit Bureau.com even better? Let us know, we’d love to hear your voice.

        Media
        Listen Now
        • Headlight News: All Episodes
        More from TheDetroitBureau
        • Guides
        • Latest News
        • Auto Reviews
        • Podcasts
        Headlight News

        TheDetroitBureau.com’s Headlight News offers a look at the past week’s top automotive news stories, as well as what’s coming up in the week ahead. Check out the week’s top story and our latest review…along with a dive into the past with this week in automotive history.

        home > news > Automobiles > Death-Free Highways Have Become a Real Possibility

        Death-Free Highways Have Become a Real Possibility

        New study will show it is already starting to happen.

        Paul A. Eisenstein
        Paul A. Eisenstein , Publisher & Editor-in-Chief
        Aug. 22, 2014
        Volvo's near AstaZero safety proving grounds.

        With the opening of its new proving grounds in western Sweden, the Volvo Car Group says it is moving “a step closer” to its goal of having no one killed or seriously injured in one of its cars by 2020.

        Not long ago, such claims might have seemed the stuff of fantasy, or worse, cynical over-promise. While there’s no question that, in the U.S., highway fatalities have fallen nearly 40% from their peak, more than 30,000 Americans are still being killed each year. Nonetheless, we may very well be approaching an era when the highway death toll sinks to zero, industry experts believe.

        The Last Word!

        A sign of that possibility will come with the release of a new study next month by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety which will show a record number of vehicles experienced no deaths during the four-year study period from 2009 through the end of 2012.

        “It’s a tall order,” says IIHS Senior Vice President Russ Rader, “But the goal is definitely feasible. We’re already seeing this happen.”

        Give credit, Rader said, to the significant improvements in both passive and active safety. A look at the results of crash tests run both the insurance trade group and by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reveals that today’s vehicles are far more likely to survive even the most serious crashes with occupants able to walk away, often without serious injury.

        When the IIHS introduced its small overlap crash test a few years ago, only a handful of large vehicles were able to protect passengers satisfactorily. The number of models is improving every year. The 2015 subcompact Honda Fit failed badly when it first went through the test – designed to simulate hitting a pole or the corner of an oncoming car. This week, an upgraded Fit passed with flying colors, earning the organization’s Top Safety Pick rating.

        Credit an improved bumper – which Honda says it will retrofit on early versions of the 2015 Fit free of charge. It’s just one of the many passive safety technologies that have been incorporated into vehicles to reduce injuries when a crash occurs.

        (Feds launch new online recall search tool. Click Here to find out more.)

        In some cases, these improvements have come as the result of federal mandates, such as the tougher roof crush standard NHTSA recently enacted to improve survivability in rollover crashes. But where the industry mantra was once, “Safety doesn’t sell,” manufacturers now recognize the opposite is true, and they’re racing to come up with newer and better features to protect occupants.

        Ford, for example, is now offering a combination airbag and seatbelt for backseat passengers in a number of its new models, such as the Flex “people-mover.”

        Volvo says its new AstaZero proving grounds was specifically designed to allow it to test new safety systems, the facility’s CEO Pether Wallin stressing, “You can simulate all types of real-world traffic scenarios. At most proving grounds, the options are more limited.”

        Passive safety systems are critical to ensuring the safety of vehicle occupants when a crash occurs, but the industry is putting growing emphasis on so-called active safety systems designed to prevent crashes in the first place.

        (Feds mull new rule to make cars talk to one another. Click Here for details.)

        Electronic stability control, or ESP, now required on all passenger vehicles sold in the U.S. “ is having a stunning effect in reducing crashes and crash deaths,” said IIHS’s Radar, by preventing the sort of slides and skids that were all too common in the past.

        But that’s only a starting point. A growing number of vehicles are now equipped with radar-guided collision avoidance systems that can, for example, detect if another vehicle might run a red light ahead of you. Even more advanced technology can automatically apply the brakes if the driver doesn’t respond quickly enough.

        The completely redesigned Mercedes-Benz launched last year is a technological showcase, even featuring infrared night vision that can spot a deer, a dog or a pedestrian.

        There is a price to be paid. By various estimates, motorists are paying thousands of dollars more for new safety systems. The good news is that digital technologies, such as ESP, are showing the same, downward pricing trend as consumer electronics, meaning more features for less money. That could prove particularly important if the latest safety features are to migrate from developed markets like the U.S. to emerging countries such as China and India, where death tolls – measured either by vehicles on the road or miles driven – are much higher.

        How much further can the industry go? Nissan is one of a number of automakers – as well as high-tech firms like Google – planning to put fully autonomous vehicles on the road, perhaps by as early as 2020.

        “Today, the automobile finds itself at a significant turning point,” Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn wrote in an op-ed for the 2014 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “With the help of policy-makers providing clear regulatory oversight, (new) technologies could lead to ‘zero fatality’ roads within our lifetimes.”

        (Are you teaching your teens bad driving habits? Click Here for the story.)

        Recently Published
        2022 Ford Maverick Lariat

        Most Popular Car on TikTok isn’t a Car: 2022 Ford Maverick

        Yesterday
        2022 Rivian R1T - beauty shot

        Rivian Confirms Plans to Meet 25K Production Goal

        Yesterday

        Will Apple Achieve What Automakers Can’t?

        Yesterday

        2 responses to “Death-Free Highways Have Become a Real Possibility”

        1. ben kelley says:
          August 24, 2014 at 1:20 pm

          With new-tech breakthroughs come new hazards and risks. It’s essential that regulators understand the implications and intricacies of the new I-communications technologies that will power the V2V world. Right now they are ill-equipped for the task; NHTSA is woefully underfunded and shy of expertise in these technologies – the Toyota SUA debacle provided a glimpse of the consequences. The manufacturers’ emphasis on sales and profits will propel some of these advances into the marketplace prematurely, with possibly lethal consequences. Add to this that every new E-breakthrough seems to invite hackers to disrupt it in deadly ways, and the bottom line is that the Brave New World of V2V may not arrive painlessly. Vigilance is the watchword.

          Reply
        2. Jorge says:
          August 25, 2014 at 10:33 am

          Unfortunately even with the best electronics in the world, vehicle operators still make mistakes like pushing on the accelerator pedal instead of the brake pedal. Whenever there is an accident in the U.S., the siren chasers look to cash in even when it’s the operators fault, not the car or manufacturer’s.

          The recent alleged unintended acceleration in the Toyota models that never actually existed is a perfect example of siren chasers wanting to blame a car maker instead of the vehicle operator for their errors. With more electronic controls, the bogus lawsuits will cripple the U.S. judicial system with attempts at Jackpot Justice.

          Reply

        Leave a Reply Cancel reply

        Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

        Share this article:
        © The Detroit Bureau 2022
        • Guides
        • Privacy Policy
        • Terms of Use
        • Affiliate Disclosure
        • Contact Us
        • Sitemap
        Follow Us: