Latest Auto Headlines

All the headlines from our Auto Topic Page, ordered by recency.

What’s Happening and What Lies Ahead for P/C Insurance Pricing: Moody’s

Oct 30 2018 // The current pricing environment for property/casualty insurers is “modestly positive,” with commercial and personal auto rates rising by mid-to-high single digits, homeowners and commercial property rates...

How High Customer Expectations Raise the Bar for Insurance Industry

Oct 30 2018 // Record high customer satisfaction among auto insurance customers is clearly good news for customers, especially at a time when their overall customer experience is being tested by the rising cost of auto insurance. For...

U.S. Safety Agency Probing Mercedes-Benz Recall Notice Practices

Oct 30 2018 // Mercedes-Benz USA is under investigation by U.S. safety regulators who say the luxury-auto maker may be taking too long to send safety recall notices to car owners and inform the government.The National Highway Traffic...

Wells Fargo Says Repaying Auto Insurance Customers to Take Until 2020

Oct 30 2018 // Wells Fargo & Co. will not finish paying back the estimated 600,000 customers it wrongly charged for auto insurance until at least 2020, the bank said in a letter to U.S. lawmakers seen by Reuters.U.S. regulators...

Mass. Court Rules for Auto Insurer in ‘Blood Relative’ Household Member Case

Oct 29 2018 // A Massachusetts Appeals Court has ruled in favor of an insurer in a case involving an automobile accident in which the injured plaintiff sought to obtain underinsured motorist coverage under a policy held by the mother and...

Families Await Justice in North Dakota Oilfield Workplace Lawsuits

Oct 25 2018 // Brenda Austin was worried when her son, Casey, told her he planned to work in North Dakota’s Bakken oilfield in early 2013.“Don’t worry. I’ll be in a safe spot,” he told her when he left their...

GM Hitting Bumps on $5 Billion Road to Driverless Cars by 2019

Oct 25 2018 // It’s one of the biggest bets going in the world of cars.Since May, General Motors Co. and its Cruise self-driving car unit have landed $5 billion in investment commitments from Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp. and...

Socal Gas Settles Motorcycle Crash Lawsuit For $46M

Oct 24 2018 // Southern California Gas Co. has agreed to pay $46 million to settle a lawsuit by a motorcyclist who was struck and badly injured by a company driver who suffered an epileptic seizure.U.S. Air Force Capt. Jason Lo was...

U.S. Agency Calls for Better Safety Metrics for Autonomous Cars

Oct 24 2018 // Autonomous vehicle manufacturers need a better yardstick to show that their products are safe, said Derek Kan, under secretary for policy at the U.S. Department of Transportation.The metrics that are most widely used by...

Parents of Florida College Student Killed by Garbage Truck Awarded $25M

Oct 23 2018 // Jurors have awarded $25 million to the parents of a University of Florida student who was run over and killed by a garbage truck near campus. The Gainesville Sun reports that an Alachua County jury awarded $12.5 million...

15 Emerging Risks from Policies to Playgrounds, Sandboxes to Scooters

Oct 18 2018 // When insurance experts are asked what they see as the most important emerging risk for the property/casualty insurance industry, their consensus is cyber in some form.While cyber obviously poses tremendous risks, some...

Uber Driver Charged with Kidnapping New York Woman

Oct 18 2018 // An Uber driver in New York City kidnapped a woman who fell asleep in his vehicle, groped her in the back seat and then left her on the side of a highway in Connecticut, federal authorities said Tuesday.Harbir Parmar, 24,...

Insurer Group Hammers Claim that California Prop 103 Saved Drivers Billions

Oct 17 2018 // The insurance industry is taking exception to a new report commemorating the 30th anniversary of one of California’s primary auto insurance laws that claims the law has saved drivers billions of dollars.The Consumer...

Fatal Car Crashes Fell 2% in 2017; 2018 Appears to Follow Trend

Oct 15 2018 // Final U.S. highway fatality numbers for 2017 are down following two consecutive years of large increases. In addition, preliminary estimates for the first six months of 2018 appear to show that this downward trend...

Pennsylvania Warns About Flood-Damaged Vehicles After Hurricane Florence

Oct 15 2018 // With automotive officials estimating that as many as 40,000 vehicles were damaged by flooding from Hurricane Florence, the Pennsylvania Insurance Department and the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) are...

Efficiency, Insurtech, Auto Uncertainty Drive Insurance M&A Activity, Says S&P

Oct 10 2018 // After one of the most active years for mergers and acquisitions in property/casualty and life insurance, market conditions point to a continued push for deals, according to analysis by S&P Global Market...

New York Governor Says Limo That Crashed Shouldn’t Have Been on the Road

Oct 10 2018 // The supersized limousine that crashed and killed 20 people outside a country store failed a safety inspection last month and shouldn’t have been on the road, and the driver wasn’t properly licensed, New...

Autonomous Driving Hype Now at ‘Peak Absurdity,’ Claims Auto Dealer Group Leader

Oct 10 2018 // The auto industry is a long way from seeing autonomous vehicles and ride-hailing companies put an end to traffic deaths and personal car ownership, according to one of the top U.S. auto dealers.“We have reached peak...

Insurance Industry in Best Position to Advance Consumer Trust in Automated Driving

Oct 9 2018 // While the race to automated vehicles picks up speed, a new survey reveals consumer are skeptical of the technology and the safety claims of its advocates, a new survey finds.Also, the insurance industry may be in the best...

Tesla Touts Its Safety Statistics

Oct 8 2018 // When it’s machine versus human, it’s more likely humans will be exchanging insurance information with other humans, according to data released by the electric car maker Tesla.In the first quarterly report on...