safety

The Tesla Model S and Model X are the safest cars in history... unless they're not. The variations in automotive crash testing are once again under the microscope, with Tesla protesting the latest batch of IIHS results after the Model S electric sedan failed again to ace the controversial small overlap frontal test. It's a frustrating blip for the EV company, which actually redesigned the car in the hope of performing better in the crash testing.

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The Model S is Tesla's crowning glory. Although really its second electric car, it is the first of its kind to reach international renown and commercial success. It is also the one that has earned the biggest scrutiny and criticism, particularly over driver safety. And while it may have just recently received accolades from the US NHTSA, it has, for the second time this year, failed to get the highest thumbs up from one nonprofit safety organization: the coveted Top Safety Pick+ of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety or IIHS.

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NASA has been working with agencies around the globe to develop a space defense technology that would be used to protect Earth from anticipated asteroid impacts. Though there's no expected impacts in our relatively near future, such a technology may prove vital for protecting humanity in the future, and as such work is underway now to test possible defense methods. One of these tests will be carried out by NASA , and it'll involve slamming a spacecraft into an asteroid to divert its course.

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Are fidget spinners the new 'hoverboard?' Such may be the case after one family reports that their son's Bluetooth fidget spinner caught fire and exploded while charging, raising concerns about the quality of these battery-equipped models. Unlike ordinary fidget spinners, which operate using bearings and little else, a Bluetooth fidget spinner is a bit more modern, packing in connectivity to one's phone...and a battery that can overheat while charging if the product is poorly made.

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Chevrolet's Bolt EV may have divided electric car buyers with its hatchback design, but new safety testing suggests there's no need to worry about how it'll hold up in a crash. The all-electric car has become the first such vehicle to grab a 2017 award from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), the independent agency which puts vehicles through their paces in crash testing that in many ways exceeds what the government-run NHTSA checks for. In recent years, the most tricky of those automotive trials has been the so-called small overlap front crash test.

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The driver killed in a high-profile Tesla crash last year repeatedly ignored warnings by the semi-autonomous Autopilot system to take control, US investigators have concluded. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) had been digging into the May 2016 incident in which Ohio resident Joshua Brown's Tesla Model S collided with a tractor-semitrailer truck near Williston, Florida, and has now released its accident docket. More than 500 pages of information have been revealed about the fatal crash, including technological reports, interview transcripts, and photographs.

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This week the folks at Facebook have released their newest Safety Check update that you and your family need to pay attention to. As Facebook is one of the most-used services on a smartphone in the world, they're pushing a lot of resources into their Safety Check system. This is the system that allows quick action for people in danger zones when terrorist attacks, natural disasters, or otherwise life-threatening events occur.

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The Tesla Model X has become the first SUV to ever score a full 5-stars in NHTSA crash testing, with the all-electric car credited as being the safest SUV around. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration examines crash performance in categories like frontal impacts, side impacts, and pole impacts. For SUVs, though, the most arduous challenge is often the risk of overturning in an incident, which the NHTSA calls the rollover probability.

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Cadillac has given its CTS luxury sedan the ability to chat with traffic lights, though the Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) technology isn't yet on production vehicles. Instead, the automaker has been carrying out trials on cars that can communicate with city infrastructure, more specifically getting information on when the lights are likely to change. That data, Cadillac says, could make urban driving both safer and less stressful.

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Despite being life-threatening, not to mention illegal in some countries, drivers still can't seem to keep their mitts off their phones when they should be on the steering wheel. Hands-free controls and calls can only go so far and doesn't cover one of the most common uses of phones while driving: text messaging. To make sure drivers no longer have an excuse not to keep their eyes on the road and their hands on the wheel, Samsung is developing an app that will automatically reply for you and let the other person know not to bother you unless it's a real emergency.

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Cadillac's Super Cruise semi-autonomous driving system will land this fall, the automaker has confirmed, taking on Tesla's Autopilot in the process. The feature had been expected to launch in 2016 alongside the Cadillac CT6, but the automaker opted to delay its release out of a surfeit of caution. Now, though, it'll be offered as an option on the 2018 Cadillac CT6 from this fall.

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Some computer hacking incidents are frightening, like those that play with your personal information. Some seem like playful, but still illegal, antics of children. Then there are those in the middle, bordering on being a nuisance, but with potentially disastrous results. Such was the situation the residents of Dallas found themselves in when, in the dead of night, the city's 156 emergency sirens blared loudly for 90 minutes, causing not just a ruckus but a growing distrust of the warning system.

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