In other news: Back-to-school shopping includes electronics, Android sales still beat iPhone and robot cars.
Summer Is Prime Time for Crime What’s Going On:
July and August are the most popular months of the year for car theft. In fact, July was National Vehicle Theft Protection Month. Lojack and the International Association of Auto Theft Investigators hooked up for Vehicle Protection Month to help educate owners on how to protect their vehicles. The initiative is now in its sixth year.
Phone in Hand Equals Ticket in the Other
What’s Going On: Distracted
driving remains a
hot-button issue for the country, especially on the heels of U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood releasing his “Blueprint for Ending Distracted Driving”
report in June. The report offers a strategy to address the use of handheld cell phones behind the wheel. While describing the plan, LaHood also announced $2.4 million in federal sup- port for California and Delaware’s pilot enforcement program
Ramping Up for Robot Cars What’s Going On:
Self-driving cars might seem more sci-fi than anything else,
but
they can eliminate the possibility of hu- man error believed to be the main cause of crashes. The In-
surance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has found that autonomous car technology, even in its most basic form to- day, is already preventing crashes. Based on research by the Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI), existing technology like forward collision avoidance systems (cars that brake autono- mously) along with adaptive headlights, which shift direction as the driver steers, have reduced the number of crashes significantly.
called “Phone in one hand, Ticket in the other.” Both of these programs begin this fall.
How It Could Affect You:
The hard-hitting plan calls attention to distracted driving and encourages the remaining 11 states without distracted driving laws to enact and enforce them. This could actually be a boom for the aftermarket since these companies, and mobile elec- tronics retailers, can offer many solutions for drivers who want to have their smartphones as part of their in-vehicle experi- ence, whether it is for music, navigation, news or social media.
How It Could Affect You: According to the National Crime Information Center Survey, out of 4,500 folks surveyed, 79 percent think about theft from occasion- ally to often, but a whopping 36 percent don’t take any measures to protect their vehicles. This continues to rep- resent an ongoing sector of opportunity for retailers to pitch safety and security products and systems.
How It Could Affect You: What’s actually happening now is automakers are laying the groundwork for these cars in the not-too-distant future. Just several months ago, Nevada approved and set regulations for self-driving vehicles on the state’s roads. Google, with its self-driving Toyota Prius, has already received the state’s first testing license. (Plates on a self-driving vehicle in Nevada are distinguished by their red color, and two people must be in the test car — a back-up human driver and passenger). That’s not all. Ford is developing a traffic jam feature, Audi is in pre-production planning for its technologies, and even Cadillac is working on a “Super Cruise” feature that allows a vehicle to steer and brake while keeping itself in a lane at highway speeds. It will be interesting to see what develops, but this could open up a window to many kinds of self-piloted and programmed electronics and technologies.
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