Safety

eBay has enacted a strict policy ban prohibiting all listings and sales of complete airbags, airbag inflators, and steering wheel airbag covers across its e-commerce platform.

A new analysis of federal traffic safety data reveals that 8 PM to 9 PM is the most dangerous hour to drive on U.S. roads.

A used car dealer in Ohio was found to be selling fake airbags from August 2024 through May 2025.

Volkswagen is expanding the capabilities of its standard IQ.DRIVE advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) for the 2027 model year. The updates apply to vehicles built on the company's MQB Evo and MEB platforms, including the 2027 Atlas family, Golf family, Tiguan, and the electric ID. Buzz.

Honda and its luxury division, Acura, are extending cylinder head gasket warranty coverage to 10 years or 150,000 miles for several of their most popular models.

A Tesla Model 3 that ran a stop sign and killed an 82-year-old man in Buena Vista Township, New Jersey, had its driver-assist system engaged at the time, according to Tesla's own report to federal regulators — a detail absent from every public account of the crash until now.

Aftermarket airbag inflators imported from China have killed an 11th person in the United States. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration confirmed the death after a collision in Dallas, Texas, on August 27, 2026.

The redesigned second-generation 2027 Kia Telluride has earned the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's (IIHS) highest safety rating, the 2026 Top Safety Pick+ (TSP+) award.

Public comment sessions rarely deliver much drama, but San Diego officials got a jolt from the Dark Side when a man in a full Darth Vader costume stepped to the microphone at a City Council Public Safety Committee meeting and delivered a sarcastic endorsement of Flock Safety's controversial cameras.

Florida's roadside enforcement has widened. After the state built its reputation on jailing triple-digit offenders under last year's Super Speeder law, Orange County deputies are now pulling over drivers for the opposite offense: lingering in the left lane.

Drivers now spend more time buried in screens and controls to complete basic in-car tasks than they did just a few years ago, according to a repeat test conducted by Vi Bilägare. The Swedish outlet first ran its methodology in 2022 and reproduced it for 2026, keeping conditions consistent to measure how modern interfaces have changed.

Flock's standard cameras are stationary. They read plates along with a vehicle's make, model, color, and other identifying details as it passes a fixed point. Placing that same capability inside a rideshare car means the collection zone travels with the vehicle. Every airport run, grocery trip, apartment-complex pickup, or late-night fare becomes another data point fed into the network.

Federal safety regulators have formally denied a petition seeking a defect investigation into Acura’s Super Handling All-Wheel Drive (SH-AWD) system, concluding that a mechanical failure in the all-wheel-drive hardware does not pose an unreasonable safety risk.

Modern vehicles are expensive, and it’s not just the gigantic figure on the window sticker that hurts. You have to consider the price of everything else involved with automobile ownership.

The 2026 Cadillac CT5 earned Poor ratings in two of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's key crash evaluations, including the group's updated side-impact test, a result that sits awkwardly beside the sedan's 5-star overall score from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and reopens questions about what those federal stars actually capture.

While small cars and muscle cars carry the highest driver mortality rates, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) highlights a different story when measuring other-driver death rates—the frequency at which occupants in other vehicles are killed during multi-vehicle collisions.

While the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) report highlights that smaller vehicles and high-horsepower sports cars remain disproportionately dangerous, it also provides the flip side of the coin: the safest vehicles on the road.

When it comes to vehicle safety, the laws of physics are non-negotiable. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) recently released its triennial report analyzing real-world driver death rates from traffic fatalities over the 2021–24 period. Across all vehicle makes and models, the industry baseline sits at an average of 37 driver deaths per million registration years.

A federal push to keep impaired drivers from starting future vehicles is moving toward a deadline that the technology may not be ready to meet.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has announced it will start rulemaking proceedings to establish new safety standards for vehicle doors.

As summer road trips and seasonal travel peak across the United States, vehicle safety experts are warning drivers that simple habits remain the primary defense against automotive theft.

Headlight output increasing dramatically thanks to new technology isn't necessarily a good thing across the board. Though it might improve visibility for the driver, near-blinding LED lights—especially those in electric cars—can well exceed the allowed maximum brightness, in turn hampering other drivers' (and pedestrians') ability to see.

If you've spent any time on social media recently, you've likely seen the frantic warnings: A government-mandated "kill switch" is coming to all new passenger vehicles sold in the United States by 2027.

The AAA Foundation is calling out drivers, both distracted and distracters. In a recent study, the organization found that drivers are great at noticing and recognizing dangerous, distracted behavior portrayed by other drivers, but they are also pretty bad at acknowledging their own distractions.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has linked at least 10 deaths and two severe injuries in the United States to defective replacement airbag inflators bearing the markings of a Chinese manufacturer, Jilin Province Detiannuo Safety Technology—commonly known as DTN Airbag.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) just dropped its latest round of safety ratings for nine 2026 model-year vehicles, and the results are a mixed bag.

It's no secret that over the past two decades Americans have migrated to larger and larger vehicles. Full-size pickups, body-on-frame SUVs, and crossovers now dominate new vehicle sales, while traditional sedans have become an endangered species.

Getting a flat tire on the road can be a scary experience, but what you do in the moments after a tire loses pressure is very important. Here’s why you really shouldn’t drive on a flat tire.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety says American car advertising has a speed problem.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has released its latest round of picks for 2026, and just two pickup trucks made the list.

For the better part of two decades, Americans have been told the SUV is the safest thing you can buy for your family.

We just reported that using a cell phone while driving at highways translates to a drastically higher likelihood of having a crash, and now word has come out that drivers who speed are also more likely to use their cell phones while doing so. This isn't exactly a mind-blowing discovery, but the potential consequences of such are certainly worrisome, and the supporting research extends to phone use and driving at effectively any speed, too.

A glance at your phone while driving doesn’t feel like much in the moment, but the numbers behind what could happen are difficult to ignore.

Each year, after careful consideration and vigorous analysis, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) announces its Top Safety Pick winners, celebrating the passenger vehicles on sale that do the best to protect their occupants as well as the pedestrians around them.

Manufacturers these days are equipping cars with more features than ever to ensure safe, comfortable and convenient rides, but savvy drivers know for ultimate preparedness, sometimes you need to take things into your own hands.

If you’ve felt like nighttime driving has gotten harsher on the eyes, you’re not alone.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has released its awards for 2026, with 63 vehicles qualifying. To earn award status, a vehicle needs to achieve a Top Safety Pick or Top Safety Pick+ rating from the IIHS based on collision avoidance and crash test data.

Cars today are safer than ever. There’s no debate. The amount of safety technology built into ever new vehicle is incredible. The chances of surviving a collision are higher than ever. But so are the chances of avoiding an incident altogether. The latter is due to advancements in what the industry calls Active Safety Systems.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) just announced it has upgraded its probe into Tesla's Full Self-Driving (FSD) system to a full-blown engineering analysis.

Anyone who lives in areas of severe weather has probably seen it. During a thunderstorm or blizzard, cars and trucks driving down the road with their hazard lights on (four-way flashers). Although these drivers may think they’re doing the right thing, it’s actually incorrect, unsafe, and in some places, illegal.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) is always looking at new tests and procedures to help make vehicles safer in the event of a collision. The agency’s latest test is a new seat and head restraint evaluation targeting neck injuries stemming from rear-end crashes. The IIHS just conclude the first ever evaluations for this new test and well, things didn’t go so well.

The Department of Justice says it will no longer seek criminal charges tied specifically to tampering with a vehicle’s onboard diagnostics system.

With the temperatures dropping and snow falling, winter tires can’t be ignored as an important part of staying safe in slippery conditions.

Technician Paul Kennaley witnesses something frightening almost every week: customers who ignore warning lights in their vehicle instrument cluster but fail to take proper (if any) action. Frequently, this results in expensive problems.

Maybe you’ve been in this situation: stuck on the side of a road, a punctured tire needing to be changed out for the spare one in the trunk. You have a pair of options, do you choose to change the tire yourself, or do you call for roadside assistance. Both options can take a while to get you back on the road, especially if you’ve never changed a tire yourself before. And even if you have, sometimes it can take some serious elbow grease.

One of the joys of the holiday season is the opportunity to see family and friends that live far away. Unfortunately, this often involves more than a simple journey of “over the river and through the wood.” Crowded highways are the new normal, resulting in greater exposure to potential accidents. Many drivers will be travelling in unfamiliar areas, which could lead to distractions from checking the GPS. Winter weather can be unpredictable, making the roads themselves dangerous, and there is always the unfortunate possibility that revelers will hit the road before they’ve completely sobered up. The best defense against unforeseen misfortune is preparedness. If you take the time to prepare your vehicle and make sure your coverage is up to date, you’ll be able to hit the road with confidence!

Driving has become such a normal part of our everyday lives that it’s easy to forget the risks we take when getting into a vehicle.  While some take safety to heart at an early age, it can be an eye opener for others when they become parents and begin a journey with their precious cargo. Luckily, the rules for keeping your children safe while driving are the same for safe driving in general, but car safety also extends beyond on-the-road practices. Knowing how to keep your family safe in, out, and around your vehicle will help instill good safety habits in children, ease stress and worry in parents, and reduce the number of accidents your family is involved in overall.

After years of delay and hundreds of avoidable deaths, all cars sold from the 2018 model year onward in the US and Canada were required to have a backup camera (the EU is phasing them in during 2022, and the UK is discussing them). But while this important safety feature is now standard across the board, most cars on the roads today are not equipped with a reverse camera. That’s where an aftermarket backup camera comes in. We’ve combed through the top-rated models across styles and price points to bring you what we think are the best choices for different needs.

Looking at bringing home a new truck? It might be time to review your insurance policy to make sure you have the right coverage. Truck insurance for your pickup is largely the same as car insurance for your car. So, switching to a pickup doesn’t necessarily mean you have to switch to a different policy, but there are differences. Here are some tips to help you shop for truck insurance that fits your needs.

You know the scene… You’re driving along, taking in the sights, when suddenly – WHAP. A pebble, or stone, or other piece of road debris flies into your windshield, putting a chip or crack in the glass. Go to  Safelite.com and schedule an appointment. It could start spreading immediately, or maybe you say to yourself  “I’ve got time – I’ll take it to Safelite® next week”. And before you know it, the damage has spread. Now it’s obstructing your view and distracting you while you drive.

The biggest leaps in automotive technology over the past few years haven’t been in propulsion; they’ve been in driver safety. The average new vehicle is safer than it’s ever been, with highly advanced, sophisticated systems that can literally “see” the road and warn of – or react to – potential threats.

If you are an experienced off-roader, you have likely used a winch more than a few times. If you have vast experience pulling yourself or others out of sticky situations, you have likely had a traditional winch hook slip and cause an even bigger problem. The little safety latch that holds a rope or cable in place will help in some situations, but that piece is not load bearing, so if the line shifts, that little latch quickly breaks. When that happens, you can suddenly lose your load, but this can be prevented with a closed system winching set up from Factor 55.

On February 1, 2022, the Deputy Administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Steven S. Cliff, signed Regulation Identifier Number 2127-AL83. That’s a lot of bureaucracy for something that’s going to change the way we drive at night forever, because RIN 2127-AL83 makes adaptive headlights legal.

If you spend much of your free time off-roading with your truck or SUV, the odds are good that you are familiar with closed system winching products like the lineup offered by Factor 55. If you are not, you should be, as closed system winching is safer, preventing the cable or D-ring from shifting against the passive latch in a traditional winch hook. The closed system winching components also look a whole lot nicer than the hook that came with your winch, tucking neatly against your fairlead.

If you drive in the winter, it’s going to happen sooner or later. Your car gets stuck in the snow. Don’t panic, you can usually get your car, truck, or SUV out of the snow without needing a tow truck or other heavy equipment to do the work for you. Here are eight steps for when your car is stuck in the snow.

It’s a cold, dark night and you’re walking out to your car. You get in, press the start button, and instead of the usual sound of your engine bursting to life you hear nothing. Just a small click comes from the front of your car as dim gauges cast a dull glow onto your distraught face. You need a boost, but do you know how? Here’s what you need to know to jump-start your car, truck, or SUV.

Your car’s battery is what makes everything in your car go. From your ignition to your radio, if you have a bad battery, none of them will work properly. A car battery, even the best one, won’t last forever. Five to seven years is the typical lifespan of a high-quality battery, less in areas of extreme heat and cold. When it’s time for a new one, you can change your car battery yourself. Here’s how to do it.

I’d like to introduce you to a long-time friend and enemy of mine. It’s called the Snow Belt.

Your author’s wife has a nasty habit of second-guessing his every move behind the wheel.