Latest Auto Headlines
All the headlines from our Auto Topic Page, ordered by recency.
State Auto Says Corrections Underway After Disappointing 2015
Mar 7 2016 // State Auto Financial Corp. ended 2015 with a steep drop in net income and a combined ratio that landed above 100. Executives blamed a bad year for the insurer’s auto lines but added that they’ve taken...
Auto Insurer 2015 Underwriting Performance Loses Traction
Mar 7 2016 // Private passenger automobile insurance remains one of the most competitive segments in the U.S. property/casualty industry, with a number of large, well capitalized organizations battling for market share and searching for...
10 Things to Know About Luxury Auto
Mar 7 2016 // James Bond’s Aston Martin DB5 made its big screen appearance 52 years ago in “Goldfinger.” The car sported concealed Browning machine guns, tactical oil slicks, ejector seats and a 5-speed, 4.0 L engine...
Valen Analytics Releases Risk Scoring Model for Commercial Auto Insurers
Mar 4 2016 // Valen Analytics, a provider of proprietary data, analytics and predictive modeling for property and casualty insurers, has launched Risk Score for commercial auto insurance within its InsureRight Platform. The predictive...
Regulators Back Nebraska Driver Who Wouldn’t Drive Unsafe Truck
Mar 4 2016 // Federal regulators want to punish a southeast Nebraska company that the regulators say wrongfully fired a driver who refused to operate a truck that violated Iowa law. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational...
Compare.com CEO Encouraged by Admiral Group’s Record 2015 Profit
Mar 3 2016 // Admiral Group plc on Thursday announced record profit for last year, and the CEO of one of its biggest brands is taking that as an endorsement of his popular online insurance shopping business model. Compare.com CEO Andrew...
Training for Penn. Police Aims to Reduce Traffic-Related Deaths
Mar 3 2016 // Training showing police ways to reduce the chances of dying in a traffic-related incident included something as simple as buckling up. For 27-year police veteran Scott Slagle, the message provided during a recent training...
MetLife Auto & Home Launches Commercial Auto Insurance in Select States
Mar 3 2016 // MetLife Auto & Home has introduced its first commercial automobile policy. The product is now available in Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, with more states planned in the near future. The commercial auto coverage is an...
Self-Driving Car Developers Betting on Senior Citizen Market
Mar 2 2016 // Florence Swanson has lived through every American car from the Ford Model T to the Tesla Model S. Now, at 94, she has stepped into what Google hopes will be the automotive future: self-driving vehicles. After her painting...
Louisiana’s New Auto Insurance Monitoring System Now in Effect
Mar 1 2016 // A new real-time auto insurance monitoring system is now being used in some parts of Louisiana to help police enforce the requirement that drivers are up to date on paying their premiums. The American Press reports the new...
Google Takes Partial Blame After Self-Driving Car Hit Bus
Mar 1 2016 // Alphabet Inc.’s Google said on Monday it bears “some responsibility” after one of its self-driving cars struck a municipal bus in a minor crash earlier this month. The crash may be the first case of one...
P/C Insurers’ Faith in Predictive Modeling Continues to Grow
Mar 1 2016 // Clarification: This article first ran a year ago, in February, 2015, on Carrier Management.com. It is not Willis Towers Watson’s most recent survey on insurers’ use of predictive modeling. For a report on...
Studies Weigh How Human Behaviors Affect Self-Driving Cars
Mar 1 2016 // How much people trust technology and what type of driving alerts they respond to may have as much or more to do with the success of autonomous vehicles than technological, legal and security concerns, according to two new...
Google Self-Driving Car Hits Bus in California Crash
Feb 29 2016 // Alphabet Inc.’s Google self-driving car struck a municipal bus in a minor crash, in what may be the first case of one of its autonomous cars hitting another vehicle. In a Feb. 23 report filed with California...
Insurance Council: Ford Truck #1 Target for Auto Thieves in Texas
Feb 29 2016 // The Ford pick-up truck is stolen more often than any other vehicle on the roadway in Texas, according to the Insurance Council of Texas. The monthly report from the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) lists Ford...
State Farm Reports Investments Overcame Underwriting Loss in 2015
Feb 28 2016 // State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co., the largest U.S. property/casualty insurer, said 2015 profit rose 48 percent on investment gains tied to pharmaceutical holdings. Net income increased to $6.2 billion from $4.2...
E-Cigarette Explosion Injures Florida Woman, Destroys Car
Feb 28 2016 // A Florida woman says an e-cigarette exploded as she took a puff, knocking her teeth loose and catching her rental car on fire. Cassandra Koziol told the Naples Daily News she had parked her car outside a friend’s...
New York Classical Pianist Awarded $2.5M for Car Crash Injuries
Feb 26 2016 // A classical pianist from New York City who hurt his elbow in a car accident and can no longer play at the level he mastered has been awarded $2.5 million by a New Jersey jury. The award was against a motorist from...
Officials: 45 Died in Rhode Island Vehicle Crashes Last Year
Feb 24 2016 // Rhode Island transportation officials say 45 people died on the state’s roadways last year, a steady decline from previous years. Most victims were in a motor vehicle. Nine were riding bicycles and eight were...
Ramsey Named Commercial Lines Director for State Auto’s Western Region
Feb 24 2016 // State Auto Insurance Co. has selected Gayle Ramsey to lead the company’s Western Region as commercial lines regional director. She is based in Austin, Texas. Ramsey joined State Auto in 2013 as an underwriter in...