News - March
The car of the future – uncrashable and cleans up after itself
New cutting edge developments in automotive technology by Volvo, Honda and Mercedes-Benz where unveiled in February that could lead to uncrashable cars in the future.
Thatcham, the research centre funded by insurance companies, presented three new technologies developed by the three manufacturers at the Transport Research Laboratory that could prevent the 125,000 injuries a year suffered as a result of traffic accidents.
75 per cent of all motor accidents are actually low speed shunts which cause billions of pounds worth of damage each year. Thatcham has presented the three technologies which it believes can best reduce this number and the number of injuries as a result.
The Mercedes Distronic Plus uses two radar systems and can bring a car to complete halt if necessary.
Volvo's new City Safe system will make its debut on the manufacturer's new XC60 SUV model. It works in slow traffic to prevent the common collisions that occur when a driver takes their eyes off the vehicle in front.
After testing the new developments, Matthew Avery, research manager a Thatcham said: "All three systems offered enhanced protection – the Volvo in particular impressed because of its autonomous operation and the fact that it intervened at the last second and can completely avoid a crash."
Meanwhile, a team at the Georgia Institute of Technology in the USA have developed the world's first car capable of filtering out harmful carbon emissions from its fuel.
The fuel system separates the hydrogen from the carbon elements that make up petrol and diesel and only the hydrogen is used to power the engine. This means that the only by-product that escapes through the exhaust is water, giving the car a zero emissions rating.
The rest of the fuel's carbon is stored in liquid form which can be recycled back into fuel.
Professor Andrei Fedorov, leader of the team that developed the system said: "We have an unstable carbon-based economy which is limited by the supply of fossil fuels, high cost and carbon dioxide pollution. We wanted to create a practical and sustainable energy strategy for cars that could solve these limitations."
Staged accidents costing the UK motorist
As many as 20 organised gangs of criminals could be involved in staged car accident scams in the UK according to fraud investigators, cashing in on millions of pounds every year.
And alarmingly, according to Royal & SunAlliance, 41 per cent of UK motorists are unaware that the crime exists.
In the last nine years, investigators have uncovered in excess of 25,000 staged accidents and ever since a ‘cheats' hotline was set up last year to report inflated insurance claims and staged accidents, calls have gone up by 175 per cent. There are fears that criminals are claiming in excess of £200 million a year.
"It is a big problem," concedes John Beadle, chairman of the Insurance Fraud Bureau. "We couldn't possible deal with all the suspected bogus claims. We'd need an army to investigate every incident."
These popular driving toys, while revolutionising car journeys have made the hit list due to motorists leaving them on show either on a dashboard or back seat, and tell tale sucker marks left on windscreens, which indicate the driver uses a Sat Nav.
Motor insurance claims say the funniest things
As a nation known for its poor excuses it's hardly surprising that motor insurance claims can often provide some of the most creative justifications for hitting other vehicles or worse, pedestrians.
Online motor insurance company Duck2Water has reported some of the more amusing claims made by its customers:
