Watch out for bicyclists
The National Transportation Safety Board is calling for a major policy overhaul to combat the rise in bicyclists killed in crashes with motor vehicles, after completing its first study of bicyclist safety since 1972. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s most recent census of fatal motor vehicle crashes, 854 bicyclists were killed in collisions with motor vehicles in 2018. That’s a 38% increase since the low point in 2010 and the highest number of fatalities in 30 years. Including pedestrian fatalities, which are up 46% over the same period, people outside of motor vehicles now account for a fifth of all traffic deaths. Most motor vehicle collisions with bicycles occur at intersections. However, crashes are more often fatal at midblock locations, where vehicles are generally traveling faster, the board noted. It called on the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to include protected bike lanes and safer intersection designs in its list of proven safety countermeasures.
Electric cars: Make some noise!
Starting September 2020, the United States will require all fully electric vehicles and hybrids operating in electric-only mode to make a sound at speeds below 18.6 m.p.h., which is the number at which the electric motor and tires make enough noise to alert pedestrians in time to avoid a mishap, reports The New York Times. In the European Union, an alerting system that sounds like an internal combustion engine and generates noise at speeds below 20 kilometers per hour (about 12 miles per hour) must now be installed in every new electric vehicle. Existing electric vehicles are required to incorporate the device by July 2021. Equipping such vehicles with audible alerts is vital, Claire Stanley, an advocacy and outreach specialist for the American Council of the Blind, was quoted as saying. “As blind individuals, we learn to travel across streets and maneuver through cities by reading the sound of traffic around us,” she said. “But the silent nature of electric cars suddenly robs us of such clues.”
Don’t fear the cruise control
Hyundai believes it can make the experience of using cruise control more intuitive by adding machine learning, reports Engadget. The South Korean automaker thinks drivers will be more likely to use its new machine-learning-based Smart Cruise Control (SSC-ML) because it will be able to match your own driving style. Hyundai says the feature adjusts for a couple of factors. First, it will mimic the distance you keep between your vehicle and the car in front of you. It also takes into account acceleration, as well as how you respond to changes in traffic. Where Hyundai thinks its new cruise control will improve on any existing system is that it won’t take a single approach to every situation. The company claims SCC-ML will be smart enough to know that you don’t always keep the same distance from another car, and that you accelerate differently depending on your current speed.
Canceled!
Hyundai Motor Group announced the development of a Road Noise Active Noise Control (RANC) system, said to dramatically reduce noise within the cabin of a vehicle. RANC builds on the Group’s current Active Noise Control (ANC) technology, which actively reduces noise by emitting soundwaves inverted to incoming noise. The new system can analyze various types of noise in real-time and produce inverted soundwaves. For example, there are different types of road noises that the new technology can process, such as resonant sounds created between tires and wheels or rumble sounds coming up from the road.