Safety

New York City 'Taxi of Tomorrow' to debut at NY International Auto Show Based on Nissan NV200 compact van, the new taxi could boost fuel economy 37% over the Ford Crown Victoria, the widely-used choice today. The 10-year contract with NYC includes provision for an all-electric version to be introduced by 2017. Read full story

GPS fused with sensors to enhance GM safety The 2013 Cadillac XTS blends input from a number of sensors to enhance driver safety, moving the automaker a step closer to 360-degree sensing and setting the stage for semi-autonomous driving. Read full story

IBM and Elektrobit partner on AUTOSAR With increasing complexity of automotive electronics and software making life difficult for engineers, IBM and Elektrobit integrate tresos inside Rational Rhapsody to help develop systems compliant with the AUTOSAR standard. Read full story

Software defined radio broadens reach to gain support The number of communication channels coming into vehicles is growing as digital radio expands and automakers show more interest in vehicle-to-vehicle communications. That’s sparking more interest in software defined radio (SDR), which uses a single chipset to handle all these inputs. Read full story

Networked cars put to traffic jam test in Germany An auto consortium will tests wireless V2X safety network with 120 cars in the Frankfurt region. Read full story

Audi reveals leading-edge safety developments The VW Group brand provides a glimpse into its comprehensive portfolio of active safety technologies, some in series manufacture, some being developed for next generation models and, even further into the future, others that the company regards as likely to make it to production. Read full story

National Academies offers ideas on NHTSA capabilities in vehicle electronics Though supportive of the decision by NHTSA, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, to close its investigation related to cases of unintended acceleration in some Toyota models, an arm of the National Academies has issued a report describing as "troubling" NHTSA's inability to convincingly address public concerns about the safety of automotive electronics. Read full story

BLASTing brownout Examining the nature of U.S. military helicopter losses from 2002-08, BAE identified a very significant proportion of accidents that could have been avoided, or reduced, by using an active scanning radar sensor and new integrated software. Read full story