Latest Auto Headlines
All the headlines from our Auto Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Minnesota: Farmers Insurance Exchange Overcharged Renters for Auto Coverage
Jul 21 2017 // Minnesota Commerce Commissioner Mike Rothman has ordered an insurance company to refund more than $300,000 to Minnesota drivers who were charged higher auto insurance rates solely because they were renters rather than...
Travelers Says It’s ‘Where It Needs to Be’ to Compete; Q2 Results Dampened by Weather
Jul 20 2017 // Small business insurance leader Travelers Companies is well-positioned to continue to compete in the small commercial insurance space that is attracting new entries including technology-driven start-ups, according to CEO...
Rhode Island State Police Issue $57K Fine for Overweight Truck
Jul 20 2017 // The Rhode Island State Police has issued a $57,000 fine against the company that owns the flatbed truck that was ruled too heavy for state bridges. Police announced the fine against Bay Crane Northeast Tuesday. The...
House Committee Advances Bill to Let Autonomous Vehicles Bypass States
Jul 19 2017 // A U.S. House panel on Wednesday approved a sweeping proposal by voice vote to allow automakers to deploy up to 100,000 self-driving vehicles without meeting existing auto safety standards and bar states from imposing...
10-Vehicle Wreck in West Texas Blamed on Dust Storm
Jul 19 2017 // Authorities are blaming a zero-visibility dust storm for a 10-vehicle pileup in West Texas that left eight people hurt, including one in critical condition. The Texas Department of Public Safety says the accident happened...
Blind Americans Want to Participate in Future of Driverless Vehicles
Jul 19 2017 // Anil Lewis was behind the wheel of his Ford Mustang convertible on a sunny Atlanta day in 1988, when he nearly hit a pedestrian who appeared in a crosswalk ahead of him, seemingly out of nowhere. It was then Lewis realized...
Travelers Launches Usage-Based Insurance App for Personal Auto Customers
Jul 18 2017 // The Travelers Companies, Inc. has launched IntelliDrive smartphone app, which gives customers insights into their driving habits and auto insurance priced according to how they drive. Customers who use the app and drive...
Idaho Manure Pond Deaths Raise Concerns About Farmworker Safety
Jul 18 2017 // It was still dark the morning Ruperto Vazquez-Carrera began his shift at Sunrise Organic Dairy in Idaho. It was mid-February 2016. A winter heat wave had melted snow and ice overnight, flooding part of the rural Jerome...
South Carolina, Mississippi Most Dangerous Southeast States for Motorcyclists
Jul 18 2017 // South Carolina is one of the Southeast’s most dangerous states for motorcyclists, but bikers put the blame on a range of problems from bad roads, inattentive motorists and inexperienced riders. The Post and Courier...
Tesla Driver: Autopilot System Didn’t Cause Minnesota Crash
Jul 17 2017 // The driver of a Tesla vehicle involved in a crash in Minnesota on July 16 has denied that its Autopilot system caused the incident, according to an email released by the automaker on Monday. The Kandiyohi County...
FCC Expands Bandwith for Radar Used in Collision Avoidance Systems
Jul 14 2017 // The U.S. Federal Communications Commission on Thursday approved allocating a larger consolidated block of spectrum for use by motor vehicle and aircraft radar systems to help avoid crashes. The FCC first approved 1 GHz of...
Kentucky Fines Car Plastic Maker Montaplast $21K Over 2 Worker Deaths
Jul 13 2017 // A Kentucky county’s largest private employer has been fined $21,000 following the deaths of two employees in unrelated accidents last October. The State Journal obtained files through an open-records request that...
Silicon Valley Fund Has $120M to Spend on Transportation Tech Including Insurance
Jul 13 2017 // Autotech Ventures, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm, said it had raised $120 million from automotive companies and financial investors for a fund that will invest in startups working on transportation services and...
Nonstandard Auto Insurance Market Continues on Downward Path: A.M. Best
Jul 13 2017 // Loss ratios and operating ratios for the U.S. private passenger nonstandard auto insurance market fell to their worst levels in a decade, according to a report from A.M. Best. The results for the population of insurers...
How Insurers Can Tap Valuable Revenue Stream Using Their ‘Data Exhaust’
Jul 11 2017 // The chief executive officer of Quandl is on a mission to let insurance companies know that their data is valuable and professional investors will pay them for it. But a lot of insurers are oblivious to that...
Does Consumer Watchdog Founder Want Asimov-like Rules for Robot Cars?
Jul 10 2017 // Powered by InsuranceJournal.tv A virtual grin arose on the face of Harvey Rosenfield with the mention of Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics. The mention was made during a phone call, but the overwhelming...
South Carolina Sets Insurer Deadline Related to New Moped Safety Law
Jul 10 2017 // The South Carolina Department of Insurance has set a deadline for auto insurers in the state to meet the requirements of recently passed moped safety legislation. The new moped law, which took effect July 1, amends South...
Michigan Court Sides with Westfield Insurance in ‘Employee/Contractor’ Case
Jul 10 2017 // The Michigan Court of Appeals has reversed the ruling of a trial court in a case involving whether a commercial insurer or a personal insurer is responsible for paying no-fault personal injury protection benefits when a...
Truck Speeding Fix Among Safety Rules Halted by Trump Anti-Regulation Order
Jul 7 2017 // Years of pleas from parents whose son was killed by a speeding tractor-trailer, buy-in from some truckers and the promise of fewer highway deaths convinced U.S. officials in September to propose requiring speed-limiting...
Startup Auto Insurer Root Expands by 2 States, Pairs with Lyft on Rental Coverage
Jul 6 2017 // Startup telematics-based auto insurer Root is now offering rental coverage in partnership with ridesharing firm Lyft. For policyholders with short-term needs for alternate transportation after an incident, Root will now...
