Automotive-related news

Chances are you spend a lot of time in your car. Here’s something that might help you appreciate your home-away-from-home a little more.

Honda provides grant to advance teen driver safety

Honda is providing more than $2 million in financial support for 25 organizations across the United States that are focused on teen driver safety. The grants support a wide variety of initiatives aimed at young drivers in the areas of education, training and resources that supplement or go beyond traditional driver’s training courses or mandated state driver’s programs.

With nearly one-third of annual traffic fatalities in the U.S. involving drivers under the age of 25, Honda invited organizations to propose ideas to improve teen safety during National Teen Driver Safety Week in Oct. 2021. Ultimately, Honda selected 25 organizations that are working to advance driver education and safety awareness in their communities supported by the funding from Honda.

The teen driver safety initiative builds on Honda’s longstanding “Safety for Everyone” approach, a commitment to advance safety for everyone sharing the road. Honda also has added information on teen safety to the safety education section of its consumer website.

Eyes on the road

Gig-economy workers are 4 times as likely as other drivers to use smartphone apps regularly while driving, a new survey from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety shows.

“The explosion of smartphone features and services has not only created new forms of driver distraction, but also a new group of rideshare and delivery drivers whose jobs require

them to interact with their phones while they’re on the road,” IIHS President David Harkey said.

Parents are also nearly 50% more prone to routinely making video calls, checking weather reports and other types of smartphone-enabled distractions than drivers without children 18 or younger, the survey found.

Statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration indicate that more than 3,000 people died in distraction-related crashes in 2020, accounting for 8 percent of all traffic-related fatalities. Because it’s difficult to determine if distraction contributed to a crash, that number is almost certainly an underestimate.

Anything that diverts the driver’s attention – eating, adjusting the radio, putting on makeup – can increase the risk of a crash. But tasks involving mobile phones and other electronic devices can be both more demanding and more tempting than other common distractions. The variety of smartphone applications has also exploded in recent years.

Improving air quality while driving?

In a pilot project, Audi said it is working with supplier MANN+HUMMEL to develop a particulate filter for electric cars that collects particulate matter from the surrounding area. Both while driving and charging, it is to already help improve air quality in cities during a first pilot phase, the company said.

Regardless of a vehicle’s drive system, 85% of fine dust in road traffic is caused by brake, tire, or road abrasion. The smallest dust particles, hardly noticeable to the naked eye, are only a few micrometers in size with a diameter of only 10 micrometers and can therefore be easily inhaled. In the past year, the World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended significantly lower particulate matter limits than in the past but according to experts, it would be impossible to comply with these new values in many urban areas in Germany.

The filter is integrated into the vehicle’s existing airflow in front of the radiator so that only a few modifications to the car are necessary, keeping costs down. The filter element is controlled via the switchable cooling air inlet and its mechanical function is comparable to that of a vacuum cleaner. By a similar principle, the fine dust particles remain stuck in the filter and the air can still flow through it.

Thus far, the filter has been used in Audi e-tron test vehicles. While driving, it passively filters by means of the movement of the vehicle; air flows through the filter system, which captures even the smallest particles. Another possibility is filtering during stationary charging. A fan that is already built into every electric vehicle conveys ambient air through the radiator – the system takes advantage of this process and can thus actively filter the air flowing through it, using the fine dust filter, ensuring the smallest particles are absorbed, even when stationary. This is ideal for use in urban environments, where the particulate matter pollution is much higher than in rural areas.

Automaker to owners of older models: Stop driving them

NPR reported that Stellantis and the U.S. government are warning owners of 276,000 older vehicles to stop driving them after Takata air bags apparently exploded in three more vehicles, killing the drivers. The company, formerly Fiat Chrysler, is telling people to stop driving Dodge Magnum wagons, Dodge Challenger and Charger muscle cars and Chrysler 300 sedans from the 2005 through 2010 model years.

Stellantis says it confirmed the driver’s air bag inflators blew apart in two cases, killing two drivers. The company suspects an inflator rupture in another case that also killed a driver. All three deaths were in warm-weather U.S. states and happened in the past seven months in 2010 model year vehicles, the company said. The fatalities bring the death toll from exploding Takata air bags to at least 32 worldwide, including 23 in the United States.