Toyota to unlock secrets of black-box recorders

Reacting to criticism that data from black-box crash recorders in its vehicles can be accessed only by the company, Toyota Motor Corp. is moving to ship hundreds of data-decoding machines to the United States and make them commercially available to help diagnose vehicle problems. The devices, known as event data recorders, are similar to the black boxes on airliners and record information such as vehicle and engine speed in the seconds before a crash.

GM and Chrysler in merger talks

By Ben Oliver Motor Industry 13 October 2008 09:12 General Motors and Chrysler are in talks to merge and create the world’s biggest car company. Reports in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal say the talks have been underway since the start of October 2008, and sources close to the possible deal put its chances of success at ’50-50’. All three US car makers have seen their sales decimated in recent months and have been forced to deny that they might seek bankruptcy protection.

Think you can talk and drive? Not so much…

It has been well documented that texting while driving is a risky practice that results in thousands of motor-vehicle deaths each year. But talking rather than texting isn't really a better alternative, according to experts at the National Safety Council. The council is hoping to better explain why driving and talking on a cell phone is so dangerous by examining how the brain works when faced with multiple cognitive tasks.