Category Archives: safety

A Tragic Loss

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On May 7th, 2016, Joshua D. Brown was killed when his Tesla Model S crashed into the side of a tractor-trailer, leading to an NHTSA investigation of Tesla’s Autopilot feature.

According to the statement released on Thursday by Tesla detailing the accident, both the car’s Autopilot system and the driver failed to apply the brake pedal leading up to the collision with the tractor-trailer.

Tesla

Tesla

Joshua Brown was an active fan of his Tesla Model S and its Autopilot feature, posting a video to his YouTube channel of the technology in action. In Tesla’s official statement Brown is referred to as a friend of the EV community. Brown was a Navy Seal who later started his own tech company, Nexu Innovations Inc. You can read his obituary here.

At the time of the accident, there had been witness reports that a Harry Potter movie could be heard playing in the car after the crash. However, this has now been verified in a new police report coming out today. Sergeant Kim Montes of the Florida Highway Patrol said a DVD player was found inside the wrecked Model S after the crash, according to a phone interview with the Associated Press.

 

GoPro shares tank after journalist links camera to Michael Schumacher’s accident

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There has been lots of buzz this week surrounding Michael Schumacher and this newly suggested idea that the GoPro camera he was using may have been part of the “problem” and may have worsened his head injuries. The sheer scale of this speculation is massive and the resulting press articles have sent shares of GoPro, lower this week.

Time will tell what happens with this one as we are sure there will be more to come here.

Seven-time F1 champion Schumacher suffered severe head injuries in a skiing accident in the French Alps last December. He emerged from a medically induced coma in June and returned home after being discharged from hospital in September.

Got to love the Swedes…

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Volvo has always been a leader in auto safety but this is one of their coolest inventions to date.  Earlier this week, Volvo debuted their newest child safety seat concept which is a fully inflatable device designed to make what’s normally a clunky and heavy seat both lighter and more portable.

Designed for parents on the go, this new prototype transforms from a stylish-looking backpack into a rear-facing car seat in less than a minute. You can pump it in the car as the seat comes with its own pump or for those tech savvy folks it’s Bluetooth-enabled so you could pump it remotely. The seat is made with a fabric that can sustain high internal pressure, originally developed by the military as part of an effort to create an inflatable airplane, which is now used by the boating industry. Bravo Volvo!