Safety

They're the car defects that are putting motorists and other road users' lives at risk.

Modern cars are designed with occupant safety as a priority.

But if all cars had these tiny cameras behind the windscreen they could actually improve traffic flow because, as I discovered by accident (not literally, touch wood), they have another handy use.The system warns you if the car in front has driven off and you haven’t – because you’re day-dreaming, rummaging for something, or doing your make-up (not guilty).The screen in the instrument panel flashes and there’s a beep, usually before the car behind you blasts the horn.I know this because having discovered it by chance, I tried it out a few more times to make sure I wasn’t imagining it.Imagine how much better the traffic would flow if more cars had a system like thisAnd...it works (apologies to those behind a dark blue Subaru Outback in peak hour last Tuesday night, in my defence we were only inching forward one car length at a time and, well, because research).The Subaru Eyesight system (their words, not ours) actually works better than any other lane keeping or forward collision warning system I’ve tested lately, including on German luxury cars. It’s also incredibly accurate at night, which can be a struggle for some systems.It got me thinking: car giant Toyota owns about 20 per cent of Subaru. I wonder if Toyota might dip into the basket and borrow this genius piece of Subaru-developed technology.Here’s hoping they do. Given that Toyota is the world’s biggest automotive brand, imagine how much better the traffic would flow if more cars had a system like this?

The car will become increasingly vulnerable to cyber attacks as makers rush to improve the connectivity of their vehicles, a leading automotive supplier has warned.

The number of video cameras in police patrol vehicles will almost double as part of a hi-tech overhaul.

A former police inspector who was instrumental in setting up WA's modern speed camera systems has attacked the Barnett Government's road safety strategy as "so far off the mark it's unbelievable".

If you're struggling to understand the latest round of ANCAP testing, you're not the only crash test dummy.

Once again controversy has greeted the latest round of independent car crash testing

Toyota HiLux tops the list of Australia’s most stolen cars

The rate of professional car thefts is on the rise as crooks find new ways to steal cars. We list Australia's hot spots.