Partnership to end traffic fatalities
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the Federal Highway Administration and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration are joining forces with the National Safety Council (NSC) to launch the Road to Zero Coalition, with the goal of ending fatalities on the nation’s roads within the next 30 years. The Department of Transportation has committed $1 million a year for the next three years to provide grants to organizations working on lifesaving programs. 2015 marked the largest increase in traffic deaths since 1966, and preliminary estimates for the first half of 2016 show an increase of about 10.4 percent compared to the number of fatalities in the first half of 2015. The Road to Zero Coalition initially will focus on promoting proven lifesaving strategies, such as improving seat belt use, installing rumble strips, truck safety, behavior change campaigns and data-driven enforcement. Additionally, the coalition will lead the development of a new scenario-based vision on how to achieve zero traffic deaths, based on evidence-based strategies and a systematic approach to eliminating risks. With the introduction of automated vehicles and advanced technologies, the Department believes it is very likely that the vision of zero road deaths and serious injuries can be achieved in the next 30 years. The Road to Zero Coalition will work to accelerate the achievement of that vision through concurrent efforts that focus on overall system design, addressing infrastructure design, vehicle technology, enforcement and behavior safety. An important principle of the effort will be to find ways to ensure that inevitable human mistakes do not result in fatalities. For more information visit Public.Affairs@dot.gov.
Automated driving
Moving forward, companies and start-ups working on autonomous driving have the opportunity to use a free specification of the high-definition lane model, making it possible to display highly accurate lane data needed for autonomous driving technologies. The specification is part of a common industry standard, which previously was only available to members of the association. The NDS Association – an industrial consortium of automobile manufacturers such as BMW, Daimler, Hyundai Motor, Volkswagen and Volvo Car – provides the specification as the downloaded package NDS Open Lane Model, available by visiting http://www.openlanemodel.org. The Open Lane Model reportedly will improve localization and path planning on routes. In addition, it will store lane topology and high-precision geometries of up to 1-cm resolutions, making it more precise than conventional models. Besides being able to assign standard attributes, such as speed limits, to lanes with high accuracy, the model will show boundaries, such as walls or tubes and colored lane markings, as well as complex intersections. With the support of camera- and LiDAR-based systems, the software will help localize the user’s own car and plan the path on streets. The full NDS lane model, which is part of the NDS standard, offers advanced features, such as lane-level traffic, lane-level parking and more optimizations that enable compact and efficient maps for autonomous driving.
Insurance premiums could drop
According to the Global Insurance Market Opportunities (GIMO) annual report, Riding the Innovation Wave, which examines the key areas of potential growth and disruption for insurers, if autonomous vehicle technology is adopted at even a moderate pace, U.S. motor pure premiums could decrease by 20 percent by the year 2035, compared to their 2015 levels, and potentially by more than 40 percent by the time that autonomous vehicles reach full adoption in 2050. With the first commercially available technology expected to take off in 2018, the forecast assumes an 81 percent reduction in claims frequency, an increase in claims severity due to sensor costs, and an increased cost of handling product liability claims. The Global Insurance Market Opportunities report suggests that insurers should perform a careful examination of their own value chain, with the aim of evaluating core strengths and identifying weaknesses. Firms should also think carefully about how data and analytics can be applied to serving clients and reorganizing core operations.
Decline in new-vehicle sales
New vehicle sales appeared to have declined in 2016, according to Kelley Blue Book. Based on the October 2016 sales forecast, new light-vehicle sales were down 6 percent from October 2015 and down 5 percent from September 2016. The seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) for October 2016 was estimated to be 17.9 million, a slight increase over the previous month, but a decrease of 18 million from October 2015. Retail sales were expected to account for 82.5 percent of volume in October 2016, down from 83.3 percent in October 2015. Subaru of America was expected to fare well, with the fastest-selling inventory, lowest days’ supply and the least incentives of any major brand. In comparison, Volkswagen continued to lose market share in the United States, and Kelley Blue Book expected the manufacturer’s volume declines to approach 10 percent in October 2016. While the mid-size care segment sales were expected to continue to drop, SUV sales surpassed car sales for the first time in the United States, a trend expected to continue with moderate gas prices. As a whole, the market share for cars in October 2016 was nearly 37 percent, compared to 40 percent in October 2015.
Carwash
New autonomous safety technologies are said to bring peace-of-mind to the driving experience. At the same time, they have been reported to cause unexpected hassles and delays for carwash-bound vehicle owners, whose cars become virtually immobilized at the facility’s entrance, according to a report by car-shopping site www.BestRide.com. The report identified dozens of domestics and imports that require owners to manually deactivate computerized safety systems before proceeding through the carwash system. From entry level models and ultra-luxury sedans to compacts and SUVs, the number of affected new vehicles is said to be extensive, including Acura, BMW, Chrysler, Dodge, Fiat, Jeep, Lexus, Mercedes-Benz, RAM, Range Rover, Subaru, Tesla, Toyota and Volvo. BestRide.com released a comprehensive list of the adjustments car owners need to make before entering the carwash.