Automotive safety technology might save your life… but it might not save you much money on your car insurance, study finds

Photo: FCA Media website.

Research organizations such as the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety are now compiling evidence that automotive technology features like blind-spot monitoring and lane departure alerts are proving effective in preventing accidents, as reported in the Insurance Journal and elsewhere.

Fear the pinch: The market for technology to keep us safe from the hazards of automotive power windows is growing 10 percent per year, report says.

Infographic: Technavio.

If you’re like me, you sometimes feel a little ambivalent about all the technology that, while convenient and helpful in many ways, can make our automobiles so bleepin’ complex these days. Not to mention that truism that has been long-uttered by those resistant to change that every additional accessory or tech feature in a car is just another thing that can break.

Connected-vehicle tech company Autotalks scores a reported ‘several million dollar’ investment from Hyundai.

Photo: Hyundai media center.

In April we ran a story on Autotalks, an Israel-based semiconductor company focused on the vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communications technology space, after they announced a collaboration with the Connected Motorcycle Consortium to enhance safety-related communication between motorcycles and other vehicles with which they share the roads.

Yesterday, Autotalks revealed that they have embarked on a major new collaboration—this time with a major global automaker. Through a direct investment in Autotalks, Hyundai Motor Company seeks to drive chipset technology for connected cars into its next generation.

Does size matter when it comes to safety? MINI Hardtop 2 Door bags IIHS safety award for criteria that include ‘nearly avoiding’ a collision, BMW Group says.

Photo: BMW Group media website.

When it comes to factors that affect crashworthiness as well as lighting and driver assist technologies, size might not matter so much. The 2019 MINI Hardtop 2-Door, which weighs in at 2,690 pounds with automatic transmission and sports a wheelbase of 98.2 inches, just brought home a 2018 Top Safety Pick award from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS).