There is so much confusion and variation in the estimates/predictions when you hear the industry experts and forecasters talk about automated vehicles. Despite the challenges, there has been significant progress in the recent years and it is only getting more intense as the auto OEMs as well the tech geeks in Silicon Valley ramp up their investments and the research in the race to reach the holy grail.. Amidst all this chaos, comes this bold prediction.. 180,000 self-driving cars will be shipped globally by 2020.
Based on Frost & Sullivan estimates charted for us by BI Intelligence, there will be about 180,000 self-driving cars shipped globally by 2020. The market research firm adds that “you are likely to commute in autonomous cars” by 2025, which is a pretty bold statement considering that’s only a decade from now.
And of course the source article doesn’t clearly articulate whether it is all Level 4 autonomy (no human input needed for operation)? Do you agree with this prediction? Click here to read the article
The USDOT’s connected vehicle program has identified many safety applications and here is an important one – curve speed warning. This application warns a truck driver if the truck is traveling too fast for an approaching curve and potentially avoid a rollover. To learn more about connected vehicles click here.
Young motorcyclist pops a wheelie on his high-powered sports motorcycle gets caught red handed by horse-mounted policemen.. When you see the video below you can’t help but laud the way the police handled the youngin’. If you got a few minutes to spare, see the comments posted on this YouTube video..
Given the high number of road deaths around the world (~1.2million fatalities/year globally and ~34K in the US alone), we can definitely use something like this to get the kids ready for the road .. It is quite funny with all the innuendos and not-so-subtle references to sex-ed. (BTW, looking at the number of hits the video has garnered on YouTube, I couldn’t help but wish the safety videos from Govt and other non.profit organizations enjoy this level of attention).
As alcohol-related accidents tend to increase in the summer months, I’d like to remind you (& all Americans) that buzzed driving can put a stop to summer fun. Here are some surprising facts:
Nearly twice as many people are killed in auto accidents during the summer months than the rest of the year combined.
1 drunken-driving fatality occurred every 51 minutes in 2012
35% of all drivers in nighttime fatal crashes who were alcohol-impaired
24% of males drivers involved in fatal crashes in 2012 had a Blood Alcohol Content of .08 or higher
A DUI can cost drivers up to $10,000 — that’s more than three months worth of income for the average working American
But before you down that extra beer and get behind the steering wheel in your vehicle, you might want to take a look at this infograph (via Ad Council):
Image courtesy: via Ad Council
As part of an ongoing “Buzzed Driving” public service campaign, the Ad Council has also partnered with I Heart Radio on a new website with more statistics and resources to help talk to students, kids and friends about safe driving in the summer: iheartradio.com/summerdriving. Help us spread the word and save a few lives. Stay Safe!
Moral of the story: If you are a city administrator, build protected bike lanes and see riders happily switch from their cars to bicycles. Fewer traffic choked streets.Read the full story here.
The long and crazy winter is finally nearing its end but then the impact of this prolonged bad weather can be felt even after that last speck of snow is gone.. As shown in this below video by a Michigan driver, the potholes resulting from the winter weather are ridiculously deep and rattles your vehicles pretty badly..
These tire-munching monsters are not only wrecking the vehicles that go over them but they also cause severe damages to your wallet as well. If that is not enough, swerving drivers who intend to avoid these ginormous potholes pose serious road safety challenges to oncoming vehicles, especially in the night.. Plight of road surfaces, particularly in rural areas, is the same in many parts of the country where mother nature showed wrath.. It only means one thing – the tax payers can expect some seriously high “patching” bills along with the vehicle repair bills as the spring blooms. With many states already way deep in the red after exhausting their winter maintenance budgets (spent on salt, ice removal, etc), this is going to be really hard to digest.. The American Automobile Association (AAA) warns that the annual tab for motorists in the USA dinged by potholes is nearly $6.4 billion. Nearly $4.8 billion is spent each year to repair damage to cars resulting from Americans ‘run-ins with potholes, utility cuts and other dangerous road conditions—almost four times the $1.3 billion a year spent on road repairs by state highway departments.”
So, how bad is it for the Washington, DC metro area? Listen to the AAA on these astronomical numbers: “Driving on roads sorely in need of repair costs Maryland motorists $1.598 billion a year in extra vehicle repairs and operating costs, or ‘$422 per motorist,'” according to the American Society of Civil Engineers’ 2013 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure. In Virginia, drivers spend $1.344 billion a year, or $254 per motorist, while It costs District of Columbia drivers $311 million a year, or $833 per motorists, according to ASCE. Aside from the direct cost of repairs, don’t forget to factor in the time wasted on negotiating the workzones when the pothole crew work hard to fix the mess. In all, it is safe to say we are screwed!
This is vintage gold. The Chevy sponsored short film below helps show road safety from 1930s. Chevrolet also tries to convince us the new safety features of their latest cars make them the safest place to be, showing dramatic accidents to prove their point! Interestingly, the traffic fatalities statistics shows that cars were not actually the safest places to be in that era. There were 34,494 fatalities recorded in 1935 in the United States, which had a population of 127 million at that time. With 228 billion vehicle miles traveled (VMT) and adjusted fatalities per 100,000 population 27.1, was not an ideally safe environment for travel by car. In comparison, today we have about 34,000 deaths for a population of 314 million, with an VMT of 2,954 billion and adjusted fatalities per 100,000 at 10.833. Thankfully the technology has come a long way to make the cars safer and we have a few more options than a Chevy to look to for a safer ride. Nonetheless it is pretty cool to see how things were back in the day.
