Tag Archives | Cars

Americans Growing Tired of Traffic Light Spy Cameras

By on June 27, 2011 in News 36

Traffic Light SpyAlex Johnson writes on MSNBC:

In more than 500 cities and towns in 25 states, silent sentries keep watch over intersections, snapping photos and shooting video of drivers who run red lights. The cameras are on the job in metropolises like Houston and Chicago and in small towns like Selmer, Tenn., population 4,700, where a single camera setup monitors traffic at the intersection of U.S. Highway 64 and Mulberry Avenue.

One of the places is Los Angeles, where, if the Police Commission gets its way, the red light cameras will have to come down in a few weeks. That puts the nation’s second-largest city at the leading edge of an anti-camera movement that appears to have been gaining traction across the country in recent weeks.

A City Council committee is considering whether to continue the city’s camera contract over the objections of the commission, which voted unanimously to remove the camera system, which shoots video of cars running red lights at 32 of the city’s thousands of intersections.

… Read the rest

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FBI Recovers Stolen Ferrari, Crashes It, Then Refuses To Pay Owner

By on May 29, 2011 in News 16
Photo: J.Smith831 (CC)

Photo: J.Smith831 (CC)

Via Russia Today:

In 2008 the FBI managed to track down a stolen Ferrari — much to the owners delight — but not for long. An agent decided to take the car for a spin before it was returned to the owner. He crashed it and no one is willing to pay-up.

The owner is suing the US Justice Department because the FBI refuses to pay the estimate $750,000 in damages to the vehicle.

The Ferrari F50 was initially stolen in 2003 from a dealer in Rosemont, Pennsylvania. After it was reported stolen the ownership was transferred to Motors Insurance. The vehicle is only one of 50 1995 Ferrari F50 sports cars in the United States.

After the sports car was found it was taken to an FBI facility in Lexington, Kentucky for the duration of the investigation. While in Kentucky however it met its demise.

FBI agent Fred Kingston was instructed to move the car from the FBI garage and decided to invite Assistant US Attorney J.

… Read the rest

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Google Lobbies Nevada to Allow Self-Driving Cars

By on May 15, 2011 in News 6

Google Self Driving CarJohn Markoff writes in the NY Times:

Google, a pioneer of self-driving cars, is quietly lobbying for legislation that would make Nevada the first state where they could be legally operated on public roads.

The cars, hybrids, have a laser range finder on the roof, as well as radar and camera sensors and more equipment in the trunk.

And yes, the proposed legislation would include an exemption from the ban on distracted driving to allow occupants to send text messages while sitting behind the wheel.

The two bills, which have received little attention outside Nevada’s Capitol, are being introduced less than a year after the giant search engine company acknowledged that it was developing cars that could be safely driven without human intervention.

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U.S. Government Considering Taxing Cars By The Mile

By on May 6, 2011 in News 32
Photo: Skippy13 (CC)

Photo: Skippy13 (CC)

Pete Kasperowicz writes for The Hill:

The Obama administration has floated a transportation authorization bill that would require the study and implementation of a plan to tax automobile drivers based on how many miles they drive.

The plan is a part of the administration’s Transportation Opportunities Act, an undated draft of which was obtained this week by Transportation Weekly.

The White House, however, said the bill is only an early draft that was not formally circulated within the administration.

“This is not an administration proposal,” White House spokeswoman Jennifer Psaki said. “This is not a bill supported by the administration. This was an early working draft proposal that was never formally circulated within the administration, does not taken into account the advice of the president’s senior advisers, economic team or Cabinet officials, and does not represent the views of the president.”

News of the draft follows a March Congressional Budget Office report that supported the idea of taxing drivers based on miles driven.

… Read the rest

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Crash Rates May Be Higher for Teen Drivers Who Start School Earlier in the Morning

By on April 17, 2011 in News 15

Are we about to witness the foundation of Mothers Against Early Classes? ScienceDaily reports:

A study in the April 15 issue of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine shows increased automobile crash rates among teen drivers who start school earlier in the morning.

Photo: Jeffrey Beall (CC)

Photo: Jeffrey Beall (CC)

Results indicate that in 2008 the weekday crash rate for 16- to 18-year-olds was about 41 percent higher in Virginia Beach, Va., where high school classes began at 7:20 — 7:25 a.m., than in adjacent Chesapeake, Va., where classes started at 8:40 — 8:45 a.m. There were 65.8 automobile crashes for every 1,000 teen drivers in Virginia Beach, and 46.6 crashes for every 1,000 teen drivers in Chesapeake. Similar results were found for 2007, when the weekday crash rate for Virginia Beach teens (71.2) was 28 percent higher than for Chesapeake teens (55.6). In a secondary analysis that evaluated only the traditional school months of September 2007 through June 2008, the weekday crash rate for teen drivers was 25 percent higher in Virginia Beach (80.0) than in Chesapeake (64.0).

… Read the rest

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Tesla Sues BBC Over Rigging Electric Car Test

By on April 5, 2011 in News 5

Tesla/TopGearThe makers of a popular electric car sued the British Broadcasting Corporation for libel, alleging that they rigged the results in a recent test.

Tesla Motors says the broadcaster faked the car’s running out of power, with the show’s host then announcing “it’s just a shame that in the real world it doesn’t seem to work.”

Tesla also charges “malicious falsehood” for the reporter’s claim that somehow “while it was being charged its brakes had broken,” and for implying that after it overheated it became immobile. In addition, the BBC also reported the car traveled only 55 miles on a single charge instead of 200 (thus implying that Tesla lied about its mileage).

The text of their lawsuit is available as a PDF, while the BBC has issued a statement that they “stand by the programme and will be vigorously defending this claim.”… Read the rest

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EU To Ban Cars From Cities By 2050

By on March 29, 2011 in News 63

No Cars AllowedBruno Waterfield writes in the Telegraph:

The European Commission on Monday unveiled a “single European transport area” aimed at enforcing “a profound shift in transport patterns for passengers” by 2050.

The plan also envisages an end to cheap holiday flights from Britain to southern Europe with a target that over 50 per cent of all journeys above 186 miles should be by rail.

Top of the EU’s list to cut climate change emissions is a target of “zero” for the number of petrol and diesel-driven cars and lorries in the EU’s future cities.

Siim Kallas, the EU transport commission, insisted that Brussels directives and new taxation of fuel would be used to force people out of their cars and onto “alternative” means of transport.

“That means no more conventionally fuelled cars in our city centres,” he said. “Action will follow, legislation, real action to change behaviour.”

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