Latest Personal Auto Headlines
All the headlines from our Personal Auto Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Driver Killed, 8 Children Injured in Mississippi School Bus Crash
Sep 12 2019 // A school bus driver is dead and eight children have injuries after a school bus rolled over in northern Mississippi. The Mississippi Highway Patrol tells news outlets that the bus driver died in the Tuesday morning...
Oregon Teen who Lost His Leg in DUI Accident Sues Driver, Brewery
Sep 9 2019 // An Oregon teen who lost his leg in a car wreck is suing the driver who crashed into him – along with the Salem brewery accused of over-serving the driver– for $3.5 million. The Statesman Journal reported James Holland...
Automated Driver Assist Cars Still a Work in Progress
Sep 9 2019 // To the human driver, it would have been an obvious obstacle: a police car and fire truck, emergency lights blazing, blocking the lane ahead. But to the Tesla Inc. Model S traveling down a Southern California freeway last...
15 Safest Driving Cities in America
Sep 6 2019 // Brownsville, Texas, has the safest drivers in America for the second year in a row, according to the 2019 Allstate America’s Best Drivers Report. The report ranks the 200 largest U.S. cities by collision frequency...
Tesla Insurance Will Use Driver Video, GPS Data Subject to States’ Approval
Sep 6 2019 // Tesla Inc.’s use of individual customer data, such as vehicle camera footage and GPS, to price its new insurance products will depend on drivers’ authorization and individual U.S. state laws, a senior company...
Tesla Autopilot Design, Plus Driver Error, to Blame for 2018 Crash: Safety Board
Sep 5 2019 // The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) on Wednesday cited driver errors and Tesla Inc.’s Autopilot design as the probable cause of a January 2018 crash of a Model S into a parked fire truck on a highway in...
Uber, Lyft Balk at Revealing Contracted Drivers’ Names; Claim ‘Trade Secrets’
Sep 4 2019 // Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc. have argued to Chicago city officials that the names of their drivers should be treated as “trade secrets,” and should not be released because competitors could use the...
Automakers Call for Urgency in Advancing U.S. Rules for Self-Driving Vehicles
Aug 30 2019 // Waymo, the self-driving car unit of Google parent Alphabet Inc, on Thursday urged the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to “promptly” remove regulatory barriers for cars without steering...
Wisconsin Man Wants State to Adopt Driver Hands-Free Cellphone Law
Aug 29 2019 // A Wisconsin man who spent three years lobbying Minnesota lawmakers to ban the use of cellphones or other electronic devices while driving said he wants his home state to adopt similar legislation. Thomas Goeltz lost his...
Texas’ Fee-Charging Driver Responsibility Program Ends Sept. 1
Aug 28 2019 // After years of failed attempts to eliminate it, the Driver Responsibility Program will end on Sept. 1. A measure signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott in June, House Bill 2048, shutters the 16-year-old program that left more...
When Insurance Companies Fail at the Promise
Aug 28 2019 // I read an article last week about the intersection of gig work, an innocent injured party, insurance, and big business. Let me summarize the best I can. A driver is in traffic and is suddenly hit by another driver, who was...
Among Bad Driving Behaviors, Speeding Is Strongest Predictor of Crashes
Aug 22 2019 // Speeding is the riskiest kind of aggressive driving, according to an analysis of data from on-board telematics devices in vehicles. Researchers at Canada’s University of Waterloo examined data from 28 million trips...
Insurance Driving Up Total Cost of Risk for Businesses
Aug 19 2019 // Businesses and organizations paid nearly two percent more in 2018 than they did in 2017 to cover the total cost of risk. Reversing the trend of falling average TCOR per $1,000 of revenue seen from 2013 to 2017, average...
Female Customers Sue Lyft Alleging Sexual Assaults by Drivers
Aug 13 2019 // Lyft Inc.’s image as the “woke” ride-hailing company faces a new challenge from a rash of lawsuits filed by women who claim they were sexually assaulted by drivers summoned to take them home after...
Rideshare Driver Suspected of Raping Passenger Near San Francisco
Aug 13 2019 // Police have arrested a Lyft driver on suspicion of raping a female passenger in the San Francisco Bay Area. San Bruno police say the 25-year-old victim told investigators she scheduled the ride early Saturday while...
Alabama Truck Driving School Accused of Bribing Examiners
Aug 9 2019 // An Alabama truck driving school owner has been charged with bribing a license examiner to show favoritism toward his students. News outlets report 72-year-old James Welburn was indicted and arrested July 25. He’s...
Minnesota Law Requiring Drivers to Use Hands-Free Phones Now in Effect
Aug 2 2019 // A reminder to Minnesota motorists — keep your hands off your cellphone while driving. A new state law took effect Aug. 1 banning drivers from talking on the phone unless they are using a hands-free device. Officials say...
West Virginia Jury Finds Bar, Landowner Responsible in Drunken Driving Death
Jul 26 2019 // A jury says a now defunct West Virginia bar and the company that owned the land under the bar are mostly responsibly in a drunken driving death. The Journal of Martinsburg reported Tuesday that Dirty Dawg Saloon LLC was...
Police Looking into if Tesla Was Self-Driving During California Crash
Jul 24 2019 // A woman was arrested after running a red light in a rented Tesla in San Francisco and causing a crash that killed a tourist and left his wife critically injured, authorities said. Officers were investigating whether the...
Deaths from Nevada Car Crashes Down in June from 2018 Rates
Jul 18 2019 // Fewer people died in car crashes on Nevada roads in June than they did a year earlier, according to state data. The Nevada Department of Public Safety reported 16 deaths from 16 crashes in June, which is almost half as...
