university of michigan

Autonomous cars might be the next big leap in not only making driving easier but also in automotive safety. But where do you test them? Not many cities want to allow several tons of metal piloted by computers to roam their streets, but the University of Michigan has found a solution. Its Board of ...

You are over ten times more likely to die of cancer or heart disease in the US than die in an auto accident – at least, according to a new study from the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute. The examination uses World Health Organization data to compare the rates of ...

New York topped the list at 56.5% of families without cars. The car was one of the icons of post-World War II Americana. Soldiers came home from the war, bought an American car with as much chrome as they could afford and moved to the suburbs to raise a family. A new study from University of ...

With more stringent federal fuel economy standards coming, it should be no surprise that the average new-vehicle fuel economy is on the rise. Automotive News cites a study from the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (Go Blue!), that shows that the 24.9-mile-per-gallon ...

Next up on the hot-button list of things that can kill you behind the wheel: "highway hypnosis." That's the zombie-like, autopilot phase you get into on a long highway drive when there isn't much to distract you, like curves or traffic. Digging further into what it is and how to combat it, ...

Could it be that the automobile's luster has faded over the years, that cars have become less synonymous with youth and freedom to Generation Y? A study by the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute clearly says yes, but that's not the whole story, Bloomberg reports. Though ...

It's easy to refer to the recession in 2008 as the point at which Americans started driving less, but a growing number of studies are showing that American driving peaked in 2004, The New York Times reports, and it's hard to quantify why. A study recently published by the University of Michigan ...

Boomers May Be The Only Ones Who Can Afford New Cars Auto execs may soon be bragging about raising the age of their average buyers. Back many more years than I would care to admit, I sat through my share of press conferences where auto execs would brag about lowering the average age of their ...

The good news is that the average fuel fuel economy of the entire US light-duty fleet improved by 40 percent over the past four decades (increasing from 13 miles per gallon to 21.6 mpg). The bad news is that Americans drive more, and with fewer passengers in each vehicle, undercutting the impact ...

According to a study by the University of Michigan, women now outnumber men on US roads for the first time in the country's history. Analysts at the school's Transportation Research Institute used data from driver's license statistics for their findings, and the trend may have a widespread impact ...

Engineers from the Ford Research and Innovation Center have been working with the University of Michigan to find the grimiest bits inside your car and their results are, well, not all that surprising. Turns out, the most microbe-infested parts of our cars' interiors are the same spots we touch ...

Ann Arbor, Michigan, is best known for the University of Michigan, punk rock progenitor Iggy Pop, and foodie favorite Zingerman's Delicatessen. We know, you're wondering why you should care. Well, it's also now home to three of the four major monthly car magazines. Hearst Corporation has ...

The University of Michigan has had one of the preeminent solar car teams in the world for more than two decades, but a new group of students is looking to make its own mark in the world of green engineering. The school will be fielding its first entry in the annual SAE Supermileage competition ...

No, that is not the world's most awesome Michigan Wolverines beer pong table. It's a million-dollar race car that's powered by the sun, and in the most recent epsiode of Translogic, our sister site visits the University of Michigan Solar Car Team to learn all about it. The Wolverines have been ...

If you've ever tried installing an infant car seat in say, a Jaguar XKR, you understand that just because a car has LATCH anchors doesn't mean your car seat is going to fit. Those anchors are supposed to make child restraint installation a breeze, but according to a new study by the Insurance ...

Our sister site Translogic visits the University of Michigan in their latest episode to check out a bipedal robot named MABEL. While other similar robots like ASIMO (built by Honda), and the Partner Robots (from Toyota) have wowed crowds with their ability to walk upright, MABEL advances the ...

It's amazing what a little regulation can do for an industry. In the past four years, the fuel economy of new vehicles has improved by an average of 14 percent, according to a new study by the University of Michigan. This increase comes on the heels of big hikes in the Corporate Average Fuel ...

A study by the University of Michigan shows that auto manufacturers could meet tougher fuel economy standards simply by increasing the size of the vehicles they sell. A "footprint-based" formula for calculating mileage targets was adopted when Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards were revised ...

Automotive fatalities continue to drop year-over-year, which is perhaps not surprising in and of itself. What is surprising, however, is a study that notes a massive falloff in the number of motoring deaths. According to The Wall Street Journal, the total number of road fatalities in 2009 was ...

While engineering students at the University of Michigan were figuring out how to turn the Ford Fiesta into a rolling iPad, engineers from Ford's infortronics research group were doing the same thing. On Thursday, those engineers and ...