In the midst of frantic Christmas shopping, here’s something you should know: A new study shows that men and women use different techniques to find their cars in crowded parking lots. Women rely more on visible landmarks (and often take huge detours while searching), while men are better at estimating distances and are thus more likely to take a direct route to the vehicle.
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Psychologists have long argued about whether or not video games are dangerous for kids, but thing’s for sure: They’re bad for their DRIVING skills. And with the majority of fatal auto accidents involving teens, this is not good news.
Teens who play mature-rated, risk-glorifying video games may be more likely than those who don’t to become reckless drivers who experience increases in automobile accidents, police stops and willingness to drink and drive, making their parents wish that teens could be restricted to self-driving cars.
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When investigators look through the wreckage of a crashed airplane, one of the first things they search for is the "black box" (which is actually painted orange), because it recorded what happened to the plane during its last half hour of its flight, and also records cockpit conversations during that period of time. Now congress wants cars to carry boxes that record the same type of information. Legislators want to pass a bill in congress that will make these mandatory on all cars by 2015.
However, what they don’t realize is that most cars already record this data if they are involved in an accident, and that this information can be read by anyone who knows how to do it.
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Engineers are working on a car that drives itself, but what may come first is a car that doesn’t let YOU drive when you’ve had too much to drink.
In 1982, about 49% of drivers killed in car wrecks had blood-alcohol levels of 0.08 or higher. By 1994, that percentage had dropped to about 33%, where it has stayed ever since.
The solution? Develop a car with a breathalyzer in the dashboard sot you have to breathe into it before the car will start (thus designated drivers will become "designated puffers," whose breath contains no alcohol. Alas, this may still allow the inebriated driver to actually drive).
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