Latest Auto Headlines
All the headlines from our Auto Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Arkansas Regulators: In Separate Cases 2 Plead Guilty to Auto Insurance Fraud
May 6 2016 // Arkansas Insurance Commissioner Allen Kerr announced two recent guilty pleas resulting from separate criminal investigations of insurance fraud. On May 2, Becky Brand, 34, of Lonoke entered a guilty plea to one count of...
How Driverless Cars Could Disrupt Investors
May 5 2016 // The development of self-driving cars is a good example of how, and why, the future may be a less profitable place for investors. Volvo Cars, one of scads of technology and automotive firms working along the same lines,...
Utah Doghouse Highway Death Results in Wrongful Death Lawsuit
May 4 2016 // A northern Utah woman whose husband and 4-year-old daughter were killed when a doghouse fell out of a man’s truck and caused a highway pileup has filed a wrongful death lawsuit. Alyssa Chambers filed the suit last...
Vandal Causes $400K in Damage at South Dakota Construction Site
May 3 2016 // Police in Sioux Falls, S.D., are looking for the vandal who damaged construction equipment to the tune of $400,000. Police spokesman Sam Clemens says the vandal was able to turn on a backhoe and tipped over a pickup truck,...
Commercial Auto Insurance Remains a Loser on the Whole: Fitch
May 3 2016 // While the property/casualty industry has reported three consecutive years of significant underwriting profits, the commercial auto market as a whole reported an underwriting loss for the fifth consecutive year in 2015. In...
State Auto Financial Q1 2016 Results Fall, Combined Ratio Rises
May 2 2016 // Ohio-based State Auto Financial Corp. announced first quarter 2016 net income of $3.0 million, or $0.07 per diluted share, versus net income of $24.7 million, or $0.60 per diluted share, for the first quarter of 2015. Net...
The Feds, the States and Self-Driving Cars
May 2 2016 // A big question looming is whether the federal government or state governments will play the primary role in setting standards for self-driving cars. Historically, the federal National Highway and Transportation Safety...
The Hartford Profit Fell 30% in Q1 Due to Higher Auto Losses, Lower Investment Income
Apr 29 2016 // The Hartford reported disappointing personal lines result for the first quarter of the year, which along with decreased investment income contributed to a 31 percent drop in profit for the quarter. First quarter 2016 net...
Young Consumers More Trusting of Autonomous Vehicles: J.D. Power
Apr 29 2016 // Trust in automation technology including driverless cars is very much age dependent, as younger consumers have a notably higher level of confidence in the technology than their older counterparts, according to the J.D....
AAIS Offers Its First Personal Auto Program for Insurers; Includes 60 Endorsement Options
Apr 28 2016 // The property/casualty insurance advisory organization AAIS has unveiled its first standardized personal auto insurance program for use by insurers that it says is the first new auto program available to the industry in...
Volvo to Launch Autonomous Driving Trial in London in 2017
Apr 28 2016 // Swedish car maker Volvo will begin an autonomous driving trial in London in 2017. Called “Drive Me London,” the UK trial will use real families in semi-autonomous cars. Starting with a handful of AD cars next...
Robot Cars Complain About Humans’ Poor Roads, Lane Markings, Signage
Apr 28 2016 // Volvo’s North American CEO, Lex Kerssemakers, lost his cool as the automaker’s semi-autonomous prototype sporadically refused to drive itself during a press event at the Los Angeles Auto Show. “It...
Alabama Jury Orders Dollar General to Pay Injured Truck Driver $925K
Apr 27 2016 // A jury in Lauderdale County, Alabama has returned one of the largest personal injury verdicts in the county’s history, finding Dollar General at fault for injuries sustained by a Kentucky delivery driver five years...
Reuters Special Report: How Google Is Winning Acceptance of Driverless Vehicles
Apr 27 2016 // The Alamo Drafthouse Cinema Plaza in Austin, Texas is a strip mall with a pet-accessories store, a Thai restaurant and a yogurt shop, an unlikely venue to display the high-tech future. But one Saturday morning in March,...
New York Among States With Highest Rate of Motorcycle Theft
Apr 27 2016 // The New York Insurance Association (NYIA) advises that motorcycle thefts in New York increased by 23 percent from 2014 to 2015. According to a report from the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB), motorcycle thefts...
Ratings of State Automobile Mutual Insurance Co. and Subs Affirmed
Apr 26 2016 // A.M. Best has affirmed the financial strength rating (FSR) of A- (Excellent) and the issuer credit ratings (ICR) of “a-” of Columbus, Ohio-based State Automobile Mutual Insurance Co. (State Auto) and its...
Who Wins, Loses In a Driverless Car Economy?
Apr 26 2016 // The automotive and tech companies pursuing the driverless car share a utopian belief: Autonomous vehicles will benefit society, eventually saving most of the nearly 33,000 people each year killed in road accidents in...
Oklahoma Law Limits Fines for Failure to Show Proof of Auto Insurance
Apr 25 2016 // Legislation now signed into law by Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin will keep some motorists with insurance from receiving a fine when they fail to carry their insurance verification form. House Bill 2473, by state Rep. Ken...
California Uber and Lyft Car Rental Decision Delayed
Apr 25 2016 // The first major product of General Motors Co.’s $500 million investment in Lyft Inc. was a short-term car-rental program. Last month, the companies began leasing Chevrolets in Chicago for up to eight weeks as part of...
Trucking Firm to Settle Fatal Crash of 5 Georgia Students for Millions
Apr 25 2016 // The employer of a tractor-trailer driver blamed for a fiery interstate crash that killed five Georgia nursing students has agreed to settle wrongful death lawsuits for large sums, with at least one victim’s family...
