road safety

The Victorian Government will soon begin trialling a 'cash for clunkers' program in an effort to get old and unsafe cars off the roads. Premier Daniel Andrews announced the move on Facebook Sunday night, with the pilot program set to begin in regional areas of Victoria. While full details have not been released, it's understood grants will be awarded to young Victorians to help replace a total of one thousand older vehicles currently registered across the state.

A new safety campaign from the Australasian New Car Assessment Programme (ANCAP) has used real-life dashcam footage submitted by Australians to highlight the importance of autonomous emergency braking (AEB) and lane support systems (LSS) in new cars. In an effort to showcase how automated driver assist technologies can intervene, the ads show a variety of near-miss run-ins between pedestrians and drivers, as well as footage of drivers veering out of their lanes and into oncoming traffic.

A hacker claims they have uncovered what a cabin-facing camera in the Tesla Model 3 is monitoring, with the findings suggesting the electric car maker is hoping to pinpoint the driver behaviours that may precede a car crash. Twitter user @greentheonly routinely investigates Tesla's in-car technology, and their latest findings suggest Tesla is using the Model 3's mysterious internal camera to capture driver head and eye movements.

Road safety authorities in the US have extended a deadline for car makers to add a sound emitting device for quiet vehicles, according to a report from news outlet Reuters. The so-called 'quiet car' rules are designed to improve pedestrian safety, forcing models with near-silent electric powertrains to produce an audible noise up to 30km/h.

As motorists slowly return to the roads following coronavirus lockdowns, concerning road safety data serves as a timely reminder that everyone can afford to improve their driving skills. In research released by the Australian Road Safety Foundation, one in four Australians admitted to taking more risks on the road since lockdowns were imposed, with speeding up 17 per cent on usual levels.