Now here is something I bet you’d never think of — A Mexican company by the name of Decano Industries has tasked their work force with smart speed bumps that will reportedly increase safety and improve fuel efficiency.

How, you ask? Well, if all goes as planned and they succeed in producing such technology these speed bumps will collapse if oncoming traffic is going the speed limit or below but will stand still if it senses a vehicle going over the speed limit.

The Mexican government seems to have faith in Decano Industries as they have given them grants and the like to get this technology out the door and onto the streets.

Read (USA Today)

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Heads up Pennsylvania residents– if you’ve got kids, chances are you know you need a car seat.  But what you may not know is that there is a specific way to put in that car seat.  And in some cases, if your car seat is not properly installed, it can result in fines for you, or, injury to the child.

But along comes the helpful folks at the Pennsylvania State Police to offer up free child seat safety check days, in which they’ll take a look at your installation, and if you’ve botched the job in any way, they’ll patch it up right.

And, if any cop tries to hassle you about it down the line, you have the ultimate excuse “I had a state trooper fix it at the last safety check day.  If YOU can’t get it right what hope do I have?”

Here’s the schedule of events in case you’re interested:

Wal-Mart in Elizabethville – checks 9/16-9/18

Summit Health Center in Chambersburg – checks 9/16 and 9/17

Pennsylvania State Barracks in Newport – checks 9/15 and 9/16

Pennsylvania State Barracks in York – checks 9/18

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It seems that a mechanic working for the F1 subsidiary GP2 has been put into an a coma late Saturday night while in the pit. According to WCF, 57 year old Vasco Rossi took a blow to the head from a wheel gun after a car got caught on a cable while driving through the pit.

Officials quickly hurried to get Mr. Rossi airlifted to the nearest hospital where he will stay in a coma for at least 3 days. Luckily, the condition is not life-threatening but this still goes to show you the dangers associated with working in the pits of such a big event.

Everyone here at Car Buyer’s Notebook hopes for a speedy recovery for Vasco Rossi and express our deepest sympathy to anyone close to him.

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In the United States, most people (if they’re smart) generally use their seatbelt because they know the consequences if an accident were to happen and they weren’t wearing it. However, it seems that this is not the case in the United Arab Emirates as there is a dangerously low rate of seat belt usage. Luckily, the government has a plan called the Salama Road Safety Public Awareness Initiative that will introduce things such as fashionable seatbelts.

When I say fashionable seat belts I mean normal seat belts with things like sports team brandings, a variety of different flags and even Gucci. The UAE gov’t hopes that by introducing these fashionable seat belts they will be able to increase the usage rate by more than 11%.

via luxist

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It seems that Enterprise, one of the nation’s largest car rental agencys, has been getting a ton of bad publicity due to a supposed “glitch” in their system. As the story goes, Enterprise purchases 66,000+ Chevy Impalas without the standard side impact air bags hoping to lower the cost. This is all fine and dandy considering they saved an estimated $11 million+ but what comes next wasn’t so dandy.

After the cars had their run, the company proceeded to sell 745 of the 66,000 purchased Chevy Impalas to consumers without telling them the side impact air bag had been removed. In fact, they actually told consumers that the cars did have the airbag, which is where said “glitch” comes in.

Hoping to remedy this problem Enterprise has said they will purchase the cars back for $750 more than their Blue Book value. What do you say, loyal readers, do we forgive them?

via autoblog

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It seems that Michael Robert Dacre the guy behind the Jetpod flying taxi has recently died during a test flight for one of his latest prototypes. Reports say that the Jetpod prototype made it into the air only to come crashing down to the ground in a fiery inferno.

There’s no telling if this will effectively halt the production of the Jetpod flying taxi (which was supposed to go into production sometime next year) but we have to say this is quite the tradegy. Let’s just hope that everyone else at Acven will recuperate after said tragedy and continue working on the Jetpod flying taxi.

via thestar

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Texting while driving isn’t safe, we that. We’ve seen studies, we’ve seen new laws go into place, we’ve seen it all, don’t text while driving, simple, right? It seems that drivers in Wales aren’t getting the memo which has caused the Gwent Police department to compile a PSA video to show people just how destructive texting while driving can be.

We’ve included the video for you to view after the break but be warned, it’s very graphic.

via gizmodo
(more…)

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GM is just starting to get their footing in the industrey back but that doesn’t mean they are prone to production problems. Their latest recall deals with 185,903 2004-2009 trucks including the Chevy Colorado, GMC Canyon, Isuzu I-280, Isuzu I-290, Isuzi I-350, and the Isuzu I-370.

This particular recall concerns the vehicle’s brake-lamp switch that, due to a production error, could possibly malfunction which means they either won’t work, or will stay lit while the car is on. This is a safety hazard because drivers behind a vehicle with a malfunctioning brake-lamp don’t know when the car is slowing down increasing the probability of a crash.

Like always, GM and the NHSTA say that you can bring your car to a local dealership to get the problem diagnosed and fixed if needed.

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Sure, GM hasn’t been doing so hot lately, but at least they have OnStar’s success under their belt. What you see above is a map taken from an OnStar command center that shows just how many users are using the service.

In case you don’t to count each dot there are 59,445 (or more) users using the service each and every day.

Below is a break down of all the uses for this particular day:

Blue button presses: 55,416

Emergency button presses: 3,939

Airbags deployed: 28

AACN (Advanced Automotive Crash Notification): 62

Total interactions: 59,445

This leads to the question, why haven’t other automakers stolen GM’s idea yet? I guess it’s only a matter of time now.

via Jalopnik

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Subaru and the NHTSA have recently issued a recall for 15,633 Bajas of the 2005-2006 model year.

This recall will begin in September and focuses on potential cracking of Baja’s fuel hose connection to the fuel pump. If it were to crack it could lead to fuel leaking from the vehicle thus increasing the risk of a fire.

Subaru says that when they begin the recall owners of 2005-2006 Bajas will be able to bring their vehicle to a local dealership to get the problem inspected and fixed free of chrage.

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Sure, it is seemingly unrelated to automobiles in anyway but it was spotted on a street and moved at one point. See? There is a connection.

Anyways, what you see above is a 6-foot Nurse Shark that was found on the streets of Miami. How did it get there? Well it seems 2 homeless men managed to snag the thing out of the water and began dragging it around trying to sell it vendors for as low as $10. Failing to find a buyer, they then proceeded to ditch it in the middle of the street.

So now you’re probably asking yourself why is this on a blog about cars, right? Well, consider it a safety warning as you now have 1 more obstacle to look out for while cruising the streets.

For all of you animal lovers out there (me included) the police are currently searching for the two men.

via Jalopnik

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Honda has recently come forth to issue a recall for their 2001 Accords and Civics.

The recall focuses on the driver’s airbag inflator which could potentially cause excessive pressure when deployed. This could cause a rupture in the inflator thus causing metal shards to go flying every which way and I’m sure you can see the safety hazard in that.

Honda is saying that if you take your vehicle to your local dealership the airbag inflator will be replaced free of charge.

via KickingTires

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Yesterday we reported to you that Tata’s sub-$2000 Nano passed through European crash testing with generally good marks. Today, we have a video of the car actually undergoing said crash test which you can view here.

Now I know that Europe has deemed the Tata Nano safe enough to be driven on the road and I don’t know about you guys, but I wouldn’t want to be in that car (above others) during a crash.

It’s still not definite but Tata hopes to bring the Nano to the American market sometime before 2011.

Read (Automotive Engineer)

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GM has recently announced that they are temporarily putting a hold on the shipments of all manual transmission touting Camaro SS vehicles. This is due to the fact that some owners have reported problems with the Launch Control feature.

Below is a quote from a GM spokesperson regarding the matter:

Our engineering team is reviewing data related to the performance of the manual transmission on the Camaro SS, and have temporarily stopped shipment of this model to the dealers.

This only impacts Camaro SS models with manual transmission in production. Camaro SS with automatic transmission, and Camaro LS and LT models are not affected and will continue to be shipped to dealers.

Since this is an “in production” review, we are NOT requesting vehicles be returned for any service or dealer deliveries stopped as a result of this action.

We’ll keep you posted if a recall is in line.

via Jalopnik

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BMW and the NHTSA have recently issued a recall that concerns all 2009 X5 and X6 SUVs, confirming the fact that this is a rather widespread problem.

According to the recall, the issue deals with the rear brake disks which have been potentially manufactured incorrectly. This means that if a vehicle is effected it could have severly reduced rear wheel breaking performance thus leading to increased stopping distance. I’m sure you can guess what kind of problems would arise from this.

BMW hasn’t said what they will do to remedy the problem but just to be safe head to your local BMW dealership to get the problem checked out.

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