Latest Auto Headlines

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

N.Y. Man Charged with Insurance Fraud for Tow Yard Arson Causing $100K in Damages

Nov 9 2020 // A New York man has been charged with arson and other crimes after allegedly setting fire to vehicles in a tow yard and filing an insurance claim to collect the cash.Egor Spiridonov, of Broad Channel, Queens, has been...

Liability, Safety and Infrastructure Concerns Slow Development of Self-Driving Cars

Nov 5 2020 // Tesla recently made headlines with the beta launch of its Full Self-Driving system. That system comes with a disclaimer saying, “It may do the wrong thing at the worst time, so you must always keep your hands on the...

U.S. P/C Insurer Impairments Rise Slightly in 2019: AM Best

Nov 5 2020 // The U.S. property/casualty industry saw 13 new insurance company impairments in 2019, two more than in 2018, involving entities operating in a mix of lines of business and a variety of states, according to a new AM Best...

Michigan Insurance Market at a Glance

Nov 2 2020 // The reform of Michigan’s auto insurance market, which went into effect on July 1, 2020, brought the promise of much-needed premium relief for Michigan drivers.An April 2019 study by the Insurance Research Council...

Texas Nonstandard Auto Insurer, ACCC, Placed into Receivership

Nov 2 2020 // A Travis County, Texas, judge has approved an order placing a Houston-based nonstandard auto insurer into receivership.On Oct. 21, Travis County District Judge Tim Sulak signed the application by the Texas Department of...

California Permits GM’s Driverless Car to Cruise Streets of San Francisco

Nov 2 2020 // The race for driverless autonomous vehicles is heating up and in October, Cruise became the first to receive a permit to test cars without anyone in them on the streets of San Francisco from California’s Department...

Logic & Language and Forms & Facts: ‘Oh Deer, These Insurance Myths!’

Nov 2 2020 // I’m not sure when I first wrote about this month’s coverage issue, though I’m sure it was at least 13 years ago and probably earlier. This is the time of year when auto collisions with deer begin to peak...

Safety Technologies Could Stop 40% of Big Truck Rear Crashes: Study

Nov 2 2020 // Safety features such as automatic emergency braking and forward collision warnings could prevent more than 40% of crashes in which semis rear-end other vehicles, a new study has found.The Insurance Institute for Highway...

Waymo Issues Self-Driving Car Incident Score Card for Phoenix Area

Oct 30 2020 // Self-driving tech company Waymo, which this month opened its driverless taxi service in the Phoenix suburbs to the public, on Friday said its autonomous vehicles there had been involved in 18 minor incidents since 2019...

NTSB Investigating Tennessee Bus Crash that Killed Child, Driver

Oct 30 2020 // Federal and state authorities on Wednesday investigated a crash between a school bus carrying 24 children and a utility vehicle that killed the bus driver and a 7-year-old girl in eastern Tennessee.Eight other children...

California Street Racer Charged with Auto Insurance Fraud, Grand Theft

Oct 29 2020 // Michael Lynn Cooper, 55, of Ontario, Calif., was charged with multiple felony counts of insurance fraud and grand theft after allegedly misrepresenting the facts of a collision to his insurance company to receive a payout...

Startup Auto Insurer Root Raises $724.4 Million in IPO

Oct 28 2020 // Automobile insurance startup Root Inc. sold shares in its initial public offering (IPO) on Tuesday at $27 apiece, above its target range, to raise $724.4 million, the company said.Root, which has $200 million in debt, sold...

How Auto Workers Are Keeping Factories Running and Masks On

Oct 27 2020 // When the coronavirus pandemic slammed the United States in March, the Detroit Three automakers shut their plants and brought their North American vehicle production to an unprecedented cold stop.Now, four months after a...

Texas Nonstandard Auto Insurer Placed into Receivership

Oct 26 2020 // A Travis County, Texas, judge has approved an order placing a Houston-based nonstandard auto insurer into receivership.On Oct. 21, Travis County District Judge Tim Sulak signed the application by the Texas Department of...

Black Man Shot by Iowa Police Settles Suit for $400K

Oct 26 2020 // A Black man who was shot by police outside an Iowa nightclub five years ago and alleged he was singled out because of his race has agreed to a nearly $400,000 settlement.Jovan Darnell Webb, 33, was wounded while attempting...

LifeSaver Mobile Launches on the Geotab Marketplace

Oct 26 2020 // Solution can help Geotab customers prevent employee phone use while driving.San Jose, CA and Toronto – October 26, 2020 – LifeSaver Mobile, a leading provider of fleet safety software, today announced the availability...

ISO Business Auto Form and Endorsement Revisions

Oct 23 2020 // Effective November 1, 2020, Insurance Services Office (ISO) is introducing 19 new endorsements for its business auto program. Many of these changes are the result of requests from IIABA’s Technical Affairs...

3 More Guilty Pleas in Louisiana Staged Auto/Tractor-Trailer Crashes

Oct 23 2020 // Three more people have pleaded guilty to conspiring to stage accidents between automobiles and tractor-trailers in Louisiana, federal authorities say.Roderick Hickman, 49, of Baton Rouge; Bernell Gale, 43, of Raceland; and...

Safety Regulator Vows to ‘Closely Monitor’ New Tesla Self-Driving Software

Oct 23 2020 // The U.S. auto safety regulator said on Thursday it was closely watching Tesla Inc.’s release of a software version intended to allow its cars to drive themselves, saying it stood ready to protect the public against...

Nebraska GOP Liable for Illegal Auto-Dial Calls, Regulators Say

Oct 22 2020 // State regulators have found the Nebraska Republican Party and a political consulting firm liable for making illegal robocalls in a hotly contested legislative race.The Nebraska Public Service Commission issued the ruling...