Author: Sven Gustafson

Video captures semi truck careening into first responders at freeway pileup

Two people were hurt, including a Texas state trooper, after a horrific incident caught on video that shows an 18-wheel semi truck barreling off the freeway behind a pileup in heavy fog, sending emergency responders and others fleeing before jackknifing, sweeping aside at least two other vehicles and crushing a pickup truck with the driver still inside.

NBC affiliate KCBD-TVcaught video of the incident, which took place Friday on Highway 84 southeast of Lubbock. The state trooper who was struck while trying to escape the onrushing semi was reportedly released from the hospital later that night with a sprained ankle, a cut to the back of his head and some bruising. The driver of the pickup, who was extracted by firefighters, was reportedly held at the hospital and was being monitored for internal injuries. He was said to be in stable conditions with few substantial injuries.

Police were there responding to a two-vehicle crash that had blocked the westbound lanes when a semi traveling eastbound (not shown in the video) jackknifed and came to a rest in the center median, with several other vehicles crashing into it, KCBD reports. Then on camera, another eastbound semi traveling at speed appears out of the fog, colliding with a red SUV that was attempting to pull over in front of it, causing the semi to jackknife, careen off the pavement and roll over, striking several vehicles in the process.

KCBD reports there were a total of five crashes involving four semi tractor-trailers and four passenger vehicles. The area was under a dense fog advisory at the time, with visibility limited to a quarter mile or less.

Related Video:

Video ID:
21a60f4d-3aa1-398b-b7bf-816be90e3f4e

Playlist ID:

Autoplay:
false

Mute:
false

Continuous:
false

Ad Key:

Ad Value:

Driver-assist technologies may encourage distracted driving: Study

2019 Cadillac CT6 with Super Cruise engaged.

Common driver-assist technologies like adaptive cruise control and lane-keep assist are meant to keep vehicle occupants safe, but a new study finds that they also make distracted driving more likely — especially with drivers who are more familiar with the technology.

The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety reports that drivers who use both safety technologies were more likely to be distracted — by their mobile phones, adjusting the car stereo or other controls, or simply taking their eyes off the road — when they were accustomed to the advanced driver-assistance systems than those who were using them for the first time. The study authors say the disparity could reflect “a lack of trust in the automated systems.”

The Virginia Tech Transportation Institute combed through data from two previous studies. In one, researchers observed 30 people driving their own personal vehicles for the equivalent of one year's worth of data. In the other, they gave 120 participants a study vehicle and observed each of them driving for a month. All the vehicles featured adaptive cruise control and lane-keeping assistance systems. They were also equipped with video cameras and sensors to collect data about the driver and other information.

Drivers in the former group with their own cars were 50% more likely to engage in secondary tasks and 80% more likely to engage in visual or manual distractions when using the semi-autonomous systems, researchers found. They also took more frequent and longer glances at non-driving-related tasks and kept their eyes on the road less.

Participants in the other group were less likely to be distracted while adaptive cruise control and lane-keep assist systems were engaged than they were during manual driving. But these drivers, who received leased vehicles and some training on how to use the systems, were slightly more likely to speed when both systems were active than the drivers who used their own vehicles.

The researchers theorize that people may become over-reliant on automation features the more familiar they become with them. They also note that the group of drivers who operated their own vehicles did not receive the same training on the safety systems, despite ostensibly receiving some information about them before or after purchasing their vehicles.

The study adds new wrinkles to what we know about distracted driving, which accounted for 3,166 fatalities in 2017, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and the emergence of semi-automated driving systems. Earlier this year, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety issued a study in which it found that, while usage of phones while behind the wheel dropped, more people were using them for texting or other messaging while driving.

Watch Bloodhound close out high-speed testing with a 628 mph run

When we last caught up with Bloodhound, the jet engine-powered earth rocket that has been conducting tests in the desert in South Africa, the team had reached 501 miles per hour and become one of the world’s 10 fastest cars. Now they’ve added another milestone, smashing their most recent target of 600 mph and then some, reaching an astonishing 628 mph.

Video footage captured during the test run on Saturday shows the Bloodhound screaming across the table-flat salt pan, kicking up an awesome fin of Kalahari Desert dust in its wake. The sound as it passes by the camera is jaw-dropping. An analysis showed that the airflow beneath the car went supersonic and stripped paint from an area three meters back from the front wheels.

It took driver Andy Green 50 seconds and just over five miles to reach maximum velocity. He launched the vehicle in “max dry” mode, with no flames visible out of the massive exhaust nozzle, up to 50 mph, then put the pedal down to push the Rolls-Royce EJ200 jet engine into afterburn mode. Green actually let up on the gas, so to speak, at 615 mph to stabilize the vehicle and deploy the twin parachute to begin slowing down. It came to halt around the 11 kilometer mark — a little shy of seven miles.

With the latest feat, Bloodhound have declared an end to the high-speed test program, which took place over the last few weeks on a 12-mile-long course in a dry lake bed.

The team hopes to break the world land speed record of 763 mph, set by Green driving the Thrust SSC in 1997, within 12 to 18 months on the same course on Hakskeen Pan. The ultimate goal is to determine the size of the rocket needed to go to 1,000 mph.

Porsche launches online car sales pilot program in U.S.

Porsche is launching a pilot program to offer online sales of new and used cars for the first time in the U.S., reflecting changing consumer preferences and taking digital retailing about as far as it can go under current dealer franchise laws.

Porsche says it has already launched the program as a joint pilot with 25 of its 191 U.S. Porsche dealers, with a wider rollout possible if all goes well. It will allow customers to move beyond using the web merely for researching vehicle specs and prices and let them view inventories, calculate payments and trade-in value, get approved for credit and sign up for financing and insurance options through Porsche Financial Services. They can also upload photos of their personal documents for ID verification and of their car for trade-in valuation. Dealers will then prepare final paperwork for customers to come in and sign before taking delivery.

The program means buyers need visit the dealer only once to collect their Porsche, with the ability to do all the other paperwork from their computer or mobile device. “For our dealerships, who are at the core of our strategic initiatives, we think this blend of digital and physical interaction with customers will only strengthen their business,” Klaus Zellmer, president and CEO of Porsche Cars North America, said in a statement.

A Porsche spokesperson said the participating dealers have installed and launched the service on their dealership websites over the past month, so the program is already live. Porsche is also launching a similar program in Germany.

Automakers have been exploring new ways to overhaul the car-buying experience as customers express dissatisfaction with the traditional automotive dealership model. Tesla most notably employs a direct retail model, bypassing dealer franchises altogether in favor of company-owned stores and online retailing, but that leaves it unable to sell its vehicles in many states with strict franchise laws. Porsche also offers a subscription service called Porsche Passport in select markets that starts at $2,000 a month and includes unlimited ability to switch models.

“We do not benchmark but instead develop new programs based on how we can best exceed customer expectations,” a Porsche spokesperson told Autoblog.

The new pilot covers all new and pre-owned vehicles in a dealership’s inventory.

Volvo expands connected car alerts across Europe

Slippery Road Alert demonstration on Volvo V60

Volvo is expanding its connected-vehicle safety technology across Europe that lets Volvo automobiles share signals whenever one vehicle switches on its hazard lights to highlight potential obstructions, slippery roads or other dangers. The company last year rolled out the service in Sweden and Norway on its 90 Series passenger cars and Volvo Trucks.

Next week, the Hazard Light Alert and Slippery Road Alert will become available to all Volvo drivers in Europe, the automaker says. They'll be standard on all new 2020 models and can be retrofitted on certain models built on Volvo's Scalable Product Architecture or Compact Modular Architecture going back to the 2016 model year.

The Hazard Light Alert sends a signal to all nearby Volvo cars connected to the cloud service whenever a driver in an equipped Volvo switches on the hazard lights, warning other drivers to help avoid potential accidents, particularly on blind corners or hill crests. The Slippery Road Alert anonymously collects information about road surfaces from cars further ahead and warns approaching drivers about slippery conditions before they reach them.

It's the latest step for the brand synonymous with safety to make roads safer. Volvo last month announced it will limit the top speed of all its cars from 2020 onward to 180 kph, or 112 mph. It also said it plans to deploy cameras and other in-car sensors that can monitor the driver's state and attentiveness to prevent distracted or drunk driving.

Of course, the broadening of these technologies for now only go as far as fellow Volvo drivers. So the company announced that for the first time, it's making what it has learned about safety over more than 40 years of research, segmented by decade, publicly available in a digital library for other automakers to use and replicate.

driive.com
All about Smart and Sustainable Mobility

Archives

February 2025
M T W T F S S
 12
3456789
10111213141516
17181920212223
2425262728