Latest Auto Headlines
All the headlines from our Auto Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Man Who Drove Bugatti into Gulf Going to Prison for Insurance Fraud
Dec 18 2015 // An exotic car salvage yard owner in Lufkin, Texas, has been sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison after pleading guilty to insurance fraud. The Houston Chronicle reports that in November 2009, Andy House drove...
Opinion: California DMV Rules Would Slow Driverless Car Development
Dec 18 2015 // The home state of Google Inc., the pioneering company in driverless cars, has just taken steps to make life more difficult – not just for Google, but for all of us who would like to see driverless cars hit the road as...
Driverless Car Accidents Pile Up As They Obey Laws, Humans Don’t So Much
Dec 18 2015 // The self-driving car, that cutting-edge creation that’s supposed to lead to a world without accidents, is achieving the exact opposite right now: The vehicles have racked up a crash rate double that of those with...
Alper Services Adds Van Winkle, Washington in Chicago
Dec 17 2015 // Alper Services LLC, based in Chicago, has hired Debra Van Winkle as a senior account manager in the Employee Benefits Division and Craig Washington as a senior claims administrator in the Claims Management Services...
Ford Announces Autonomous Vehicle Testing on California Roads
Dec 17 2015 // Ford announced that it is officially enrolled in the California Autonomous Vehicle Tester Program to test autonomous vehicles on public roads, and fully autonomous Ford Fusion Hybrid sedans are set to take to California...
How to Make U.S. Traffic Safety Programs More Effective: RAND Study
Dec 17 2015 // Following a national approach to adopting traffic safety laws is more cost effective than following a state-by-state approach, according to a new RAND Corp. study. Boosting traffic safety funding by 10 percent and...
A.M. Best Downgrades Specialty Auto Writer Nevada General
Dec 16 2015 // A.M. Best has downgraded the issuer credit rating to “bbb” from “bbb+” and affirmed the financial strength rating of B++ (Good) of Nevada General Insurance Co. The outlook for the ICR has been...
After Seeing Truck in Jihadist Photo Texas Plumber Sues Dealer
Dec 15 2015 // A Texas plumber is suing a truck dealer after a vehicle emblazoned with his company’s name and phone number — and carrying gun-toting fighters — appeared in a photo circulated by purported Islamic...
Ohio’s Ride-Hailing Bill Awaits Governor’s Signature
Dec 15 2015 // Ohio’s Transportation Network Company (TNC) bill, Sub. HB 237, is headed to Gov. John Kasich for his signature, according to the Ohio Insurance Institute. The insurance industry trade group sent a letter to the...
U.S. Safety Agency Advocating Stronger Truck Rear-Impact Guards
Dec 14 2015 // The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is proposing that trucking companies be required to install stronger guards on their trailers to reduce deaths caused when cars rear-end tractor trailers. The agency...
7 Simple Underwriting Questions Nobody Asks
Dec 14 2015 // First, let’s be clear – this is only a SMALL sampling of simple questions agents and underwriters fail to ask! There are dozens of simple, common sense questions that are often skipped – why remains a...
Investors Assess El Niño Effect on Businesses from Bug Killers to Insurers
Dec 10 2015 // As the El Niño weather phenomenon makes the U.S. Northeast warmer, the Midwest drier, and the South and the West wetter this winter, Eric Marshall, portfolio manager of the $2 billion Hodges Small Cap fund, is not one of...
Auto Insurance? Pensions Online? EU Wants Cross-Border Financial Market
Dec 10 2015 // Creating a pan-European retail market in car insurance and pensions largely hinges on whether 500 million consumers will go online to widen their choice of products, the EU’s executive body said on Thursday. The...
Texas Safety Officials: Nearly 16K Vehicles Stolen in December 2014
Dec 9 2015 // The Texas Department of Public Safety says the potential for vehicle thefts is high in December. The DPS reported that 5,717 automobiles, pickups and motorcycles were recorded stolen in December 2014, making it one of the...
U.S. Looks to Revamp Auto Safety Ratings, Add High-Tech Crash Dummies
Dec 9 2015 // U.S. regulators proposed a remake of the five-star crash-test ratings system for automobiles to take into account new technology — and new test dummies. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s...
South Carolina Insurers to Weather At Least $181M in Claims from October Storm
Dec 8 2015 // A pickup truck rests against the side of Gills Creek near a bridge in Columbia, S.C., Monday, Oct. 5, 2015. Days of torrential rains kept much of South Carolina and its capital gripped by floodwaters early Monday. (AP...
Insurance Lies Clients Believe – And Pass on to Others
Dec 7 2015 // Myths, legends and lies are hard to dispel and correct, especially when doing so appears to financially harm the teller or believer. If the myth is true, the client (the teller/believer) does not need to purchase the...
Study Says Telematics Use Changing Drivers’ Behavior
Dec 7 2015 // Telematics devices offered by auto insurers appear to working to change the behavior of drivers. More than half (56 percent) of the 1,135 drivers participating in an Insurance Research Council (IRC) public opinion survey...
Brain Damaged Motorcyclist in Hawaii Gets $1.3M Settlement
Dec 1 2015 // A federal judge has approved a $1.3 million settlement in a lawsuit filed by a Hawaii motorcyclist who suffered permanent brain injury in a 2012 collision in Honolulu. The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reports that Aaron Aloya...
Insurance ‘Sting’ Aims to Catch Cargo Thieves During Their Busy Holiday Season
Dec 1 2015 // Somewhere in America, a tractor-trailer loaded with hidden surveillance equipment is parked at a truck stop or warehouse while authorities wait for thieves to steal it. No one is sure when, or even if, crooks will take it....
