Latest Personal Auto Headlines
All the headlines from our Personal Auto Topic Page, ordered by recency.
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...
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...
Few Rideshare Drivers Have Insurance, But Interest is Growing
Feb 29 2016 // A large portion of rideshare drivers do not have the required insurance – but more are buying it, or seem to be more interested in it. According to a recent survey by the Rideshare Guy, roughly one-in-five rideshare...
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...
Rhode Island Lawmakers Eye Driver’s Licenses for Undocumented Immigrants
Feb 29 2016 // Lawmakers in Rhode Island are making another attempt to grant driving privileges to immigrants who are in the country illegally. Similar legislation stalled last year but state Sen. Frank Ciccone, a Providence Democrat,...
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...
$50M Suit Challenges Florida’s Suspension of Driver’s Licenses in DUI Cases
Feb 24 2016 // A federal lawsuit is challenging the way driver’s licenses are automatically taken away from drunken-driving suspects in Florida. The class-action lawsuit filed Feb. 17 in federal court in Orlando says the current...
Attacks by Michigan Uber Driver Renew Questions About Vetting Processes
Feb 23 2016 // The deaths of six people in Kalamazoo, Michigan, who authorities say were shot by a driver for Uber Technologies Inc., have revived scrutiny over how the ride service vets its drivers, an issue that has plagued it for...
Progressive Introduces Coverage for Rideshare Drivers in Texas
Feb 23 2016 // Progressive Insurance said it is now offering coverage for drivers of transportation network companies (TNCs) in Texas. The coverage will be a personal policy endorsement that fills most of the coverage gap between a...
GEICO Expands Ridesharing Coverage to South Carolina Drivers
Feb 23 2016 // GEICO is now offering a new ridesharing insurance product to drivers in South Carolina. GEICO’s ridesharing product replaces the driver’s personal auto policy and provides coverage for personal, ridesharing and...
Study: Terre Haute Has Fewer Driving Deaths
Feb 22 2016 // A consumer advocacy organization says Terre Haute is the Indiana city with the fewest distracted and drunken driving fatalities. ConsumerAffairs conducted a nationwide study using the latest available data from 2014...
U.S. Safety Agency to Google: Software Qualifies as a Driver
Feb 22 2016 // U.S. vehicle safety regulators have said the artificial intelligence system piloting a self-driving Google car could be considered the driver under federal law, a major step toward ultimately winning approval for...
Tennessee High Court Rules to Make it Easier to Arrest, Convict Drunk Drivers
Feb 19 2016 // In two unanimous decisions, the Tennessee Supreme Court ruled Feb. 11 that police have the right to stop motorists if their vehicles cross roadway markings, even if briefly, essentially making it easier to arrest and...
South Carolina Jury Awards $1M to Victim of Drunk Driver
Feb 10 2016 // A Richland County jury has awarded about $1 million in punitive damages to a woman injured in a car crash involving a repeat drunken driver. The State newspaper reported that a jury last week also awarded Jami Allison...
Software Qualifies as a Driver, Says U.S. Safety Agency on Google Self-Driving Car
Feb 10 2016 // U.S. vehicle safety regulators have said the artificial intelligence system piloting a self-driving Google car could be considered the driver under federal law, a major step toward ultimately winning approval for...
Self-Driving Vehicles Meet Their Match When Snow Creates Sensor Blindness
Feb 10 2016 // In Jokkmokk, a tiny hamlet just north of the Arctic Circle in Sweden, where temperatures can dip to 50 below, Volvo Cars’ self-driving XC90 sport-utility vehicle met its match: frozen flakes that caked on radar...
Study: Among Indiana Cities Terre Haute Has Fewer Driving Deaths
Feb 9 2016 // A consumer advocacy organization says Terre Haute is the Indiana city with the fewest distracted and drunken driving fatalities. The Tribune-Star reports that ConsumerAffairs conducted a nationwide study using the latest...
Aspen MGA to Acquire Midlands Management’s Texas Personal Auto Book
Feb 5 2016 // Aspen Managing General Agency (MGA) and Midlands Management of Texas announced that Aspen MGA has acquired the renewal rights of the Texas personal auto business currently managed by Midlands Management. Richard Bird,...
Why Google’s Not So Smart or Fast and Insurance Agents Aren’t Dead… Yet
Feb 2 2016 // Insurance agents aren’t dead yet, but even underwriters participating in the personal automobile insurance market may be looking for another line of work within the next two decades, industry observers said at a...
Uber’s Bid to Pause Suit by California Drivers Group Rejected
Jan 29 2016 // Uber Technologies Inc. lost its bid to pause a lawsuit by California drivers demanding to be treated as employees that has grown dramatically in both size and potential liability. The U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco...
