Donate Car to Charity California, Donate Car for Tax Credit, Donate Cars in MA, Donate Your Car Sacramento, How to Donate A Car in California, Donate Your Car for Kids, Donate a Car in Maryland, Donating a Car in Maryland, Donate Cars Illinois, Donate Old Cars to Charity, Met Auto, Car Donate Smart cars communicate with other vehicles to avoid crashes Driving is so much unbelievably safer than it used to be. Cars themselves are safer cocoons because of an amazing array of airbags, greater seatbelt use, collapsible steering wheels, protective panels in the doors and many other features. In addition, road conditions have improved with better freeway design, better guardrail design, the design of entrance and exit ramps and so on. But what if you could avoid an accident altogether? Eight automakers have formed a consortium to work on a radar system that will allow cars to communicate with each other and hopefully avoid collisions. GM, Toyota, Ford and VW are among some of the players involved, according to The Detroit News. The radar system they’re working on will warn you when you’re getting too close to another vehicle, much like collision avoidance radar in airplanes. Now we’re really close to having this idea in automobiles. It means that in time, cars will be able to protect you by taking over steering before you even have time to react. Think about the adaptive cruise control that’s already available in high-end cars. If you’re accelerating at a dangerous speed, it senses that the distance between your car and the car ahead of you is too tight and automatically backs your car off. This will save huge numbers of lives by preventing accidents from ever occurring. As soon as it’s clear when more robust “smart” car features will be available, I’ll give you an update and let you know that. Summer gas prices poised to go down further The economic slowdown in both Europe and China means you’re already paying less when you go to fill up at the pump. Yet there’s even more good news about energy costs coming thanks to increased oil exploration and production right here in the United States. Did you know that there are people in North Dakota sleeping in their vehicles — and it’s for a good reason? It’s all because there’s a massive oil rush in the heartland and there’s not enough housing for all the oil workers, truck drivers and everybody else involved in the industry. In fact, North Dakota has now surpassed Alaska in oil production. (Texas remains the top oil-producing state in America.) Both the U.S. and Canada are using new methods of production to generate huge amounts of oil that then gets turned into refined gasoline. Horizontal drilling and fracking are just two methods that have revived what were considered tapped out oil and natural gas fields in North America. That’s lead to the massive increase in the supply of both energies. And the best part of all? A lot of those energy jobs that existed overseas now will be right here in North America. Meanwhile, the other part of our nation’s energy picture is conservation, which is what’s sometimes called “the fifth fuel.” Our demand for gasoline in the U.S. has been dropping as our vehicles get more fuel efficient. As we us less gas to travel the same amount of miles, we’re reducing our demand at the same time we’re producing more domestic supply. I advise anyone who will listen to me to buy a fuel-efficient vehicle when it comes time to replace a ride in their life. The one thing you don’t want to do is let today’s decreasing gas prices lull you into a false sense of complacency.
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