Safety

More than 350 Ferrari sports-cars recalled in Australia due to faulty Takata airbags

Best-ever pedestrian ANCAP safety score for Mazda's smallest sports car, but lack of curtain air bags and autonomous emergency braking noted.

I have a 2006 Toyota Yaris which looks good and runs well. However, it has had four recalls that have caused me a great deal of distress. Do you think it would be sensible under these circumstances to buy the latest model of this car?

My wife recently received an urgent recall for her eight-year-old Toyota Yaris regarding potential problems with the driver's seat rail and airbag. She called the dealer who sold and serviced the vehicle and was told the car could be inspected in October. We were concerned about the delay and emailed Toyota Australia and didn't get the courtesy of a reply. Then we contacted another dealer, who gave us a booking in less than a week. I find this situation peculiar. Could you please explain?

There are more speed cameras on Australian roads than ever before, and yet the road toll keeps rising. How can we stop the carnage?

Great Wall Motors' luxury brand promised its latest model would score five stars for safety, but it has fallen short say authorities.

The NSW government’s road safety chief says an increase in the number of speed cameras has saved lives, despite the state’s road toll being 32 per cent higher this year than in 2015.

I and many friends have great difficulty at shopping centres with SUVs parking in car spaces. When leaving a space in a normal sedan, with the high rear bodywork of an SUV, it is impossible to see an oncoming vehicle and this risks a collision. SUVs should have separate parking areas, preferably away from normal vehicles.

This is a call for calm in the excitement over autonomous cars.All the big brands have cars that can drive themselves from Sydney to Melbourne today.But, wisely, none are prepared to release them to the public yet because the technology still has a long way to go.The radar units can get tricked by steel guard rails. The cameras can get blinded by bright sunlight, fog and heavy rain.And sometimes the system just wigs out, like it did to me testing a Mercedes with an automatic overtaking function. We nearly crashed it into a concrete barrier at 100kmh when it didn't detect the surroundings properly.Had I binned it, that would have been deemed my fault. And rightly so. The driver should always be in control of the car. Just like a pilot is always in control of a plane, even in autopilot mode.And that's how police and insurance companies will continue to assign fault, no matter what promises car companies make about their future technology.Being able to summon a car to pick you up from the shop, or be driven to work while reading a paper is still decades away -- if authorities will allow it. For now it's science fiction.What we are witnessing is the gradual automation of the automobile.The term “autonomous car” is being over-used, and wrongly used.In fact, you could argue it started with old fashioned cruise control -- set the speed and the driver doesn't need to touch the accelerator pedal.Then we got radar cruise control. It maintains a gap between the car in front -- and matches its speed, up or down, as the lane ahead clears.In that scenario, the driver no longer needs to touch the brake or the accelerator.Now we are starting to see traffic jam assistance -- press a button and the car will inch forward and apply the brakes automatically in stop-start conditions. That was first seen on Benzes and BMWs and now it's on certain Hyundai, Honda and Nissan cars.Following “lane wander alert” (a camera in the windscreen can detect when you move from your lane without indicating) we now have “lane-keeping”. The car will steer itself straight. You can get that on the luxury version of the Ford Ranger ute, as well as prestige cars.Coming soon to Australian roads is a Mercedes that will allow you to take your hands off the wheel for up to 60 seconds (up from 10 seconds) providing there are lane markings and the corner is not too tight.But all of the above prompts the question: will this reduce crashes or increase them, as motorists become more reliant on technology -- and more complacent behind the wheel?

The NSW Police Force's top brass, Hyundai and driver training experts joined a car crash survivor today in a plea to road users to take responsibility for their actions behind the wheel.