uAutomakers Commit To Making Sensor-Based Emergency Braking Systems Standard In Vehiclesr

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  (Chris Rief)

  Earlier this year, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced plans to change its vehicle safety rating program to include two sensor-based automatic emergency braking systems. While the agency didn’t go so far as to mandate automakers’ use of the systems, 10 manufacturers recently pledged to do so.

  The Department of Transportation announced that 10 automakers will make automatic emergency braking (AEB) a standard feature on all of their newly built vehicles.

  Audi, BMW, Ford, General Motors, Mazda, Mercedes Benz, Tesla, Toyota, Volkswagen and Volvo will work with the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) and NHTSA in the coming months to create a plan for implementing the system as a standard feature on vehicles.

  “We are entering a new era of vehicle safety, focused on preventing crashes from ever occurring, rather than just protecting occupants when crashes happen,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, said. “But if technologies such as automatic emergency braking are only available as options or on the most expensive models, too few Americans will see the benefits of this new era. These 10 companies are committing to making AEB available to all new-car buyers.”

  The systems are intended to address a number of crashes, including rear-end crashes in which drivers do not apply sufficient braking power to avoid a crash.

  AEB systems use on-vehicle sensors such as radar, cameras or lasers to detect an imminent crash, warn the driver and, if the driver does not take sufficient action, engage the brakes.

  Regulators say the sensor-based technology could help to save hundreds, if not thousands, of lives each year by warning inattentive drivers or by intervening to prevent crashes. According to NHTSA data, nearly 60% of fatal highway accidents are caused by inattentive drivers.

  NHTSA researchers found earlier this year that one-third of police reported crashes in 2013 involved rear-end collisions; a large number of those crashes were a result of drivers not applying the brakes or not fully braking.

  “The evidence is mounting that AEB is making a difference,” IIHS President Adrian Lund said Friday. “Most crashes involve driver error. This technology can compensate for the mistakes every driver makes because the systems are always on alert, monitoring the road ahead and never getting tired or distracted.”

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

u10-Year-Old MP3 Players Fail To Fly Off Walmart Shelves At $80r

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• When will the MobiBLU, the world’s smallest full-featured MP3 player in 2005, finally sell out? Maybe never. The devices are doomed to roam Walmart aisles for years to come, reminding everyone that Walmart once had its own music downloads store, and that for some reason the retailer’s much-praised inventory control systems can’t understand how to get rid of decade-old gadgets.

  

  For some reason, these devices keep ending up on Walmart store shelves, usually on clearance. Prices range from $109.72 to $60, putting this example that Josh found in a store in Kentucky in the middle of the price range. They could move the devices if marked down to maybe five or ten bucks, but for some reason that is not the Walmart Clearance Aisle Way.

  How long as this item been hanging on this particular shelf? Glad that you asked. Yes, the shelf tag matches up with the item, and it’s been on clearance since June of this year. Apparently, you had to pay full price before that?

  

  Let’s review the best thing about the MobiBLU: the promotional offer for free song downloads from Walmart’s music store, which expired in 2006. Those songs themselves expired back in 2008 when Walmart shut down their music store, taking customers’ licenses to listen to the files along with them.

  

  
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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

uWhite House Unveils New “College Score Card” To Help Students Select Schoolsr

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  (bluwmongoose)

  With student loan debt now well past the $1.2 trillion mark — due in no small part to students that paid top-shelf tuition prices but ended up with bottom-shelf educations and job prospects — there’s a need to provide American students and their families with all the relevant information they need when it comes to picking the right school for their goals and their wallets.

  In his weekly address to the nation this morning, President Obama announced the creation of a new “College Score Card” that his administration believes will help students get a better understanding of what they’re committing to before they buy.

  According to the president, the score card will provide information, including how much money a school’s graduates earn. After all, surveys have shown that the most expensive and prestigious colleges don’t always lead to the highest-paying careers.

  Similarly, the card will show the debt burden of a school’s graduates, and how many of those grads are able to pay down that debt.

  The score card is a project in its early stages. The president says it will be improved upon and tweaked in the months to come as the administration gets feedback from students, parents, school counselors, and colleges.

  Why offer these score cards when there are already seemingly countless annual reviews and rankings of schools? Many of those ratings treat the issue of cost and return on investment as a secondary issue to things like campus life, famous faculty and alumni, and athletics.

  “The status quo serves some colleges and the companies that rank them just fine,” says the president. “But it doesn’t serve our students well – and that doesn’t serve any of us well. There are colleges dedicated to helping students of all backgrounds learn without saddling them with debt. We should hold everybody to that standard. Our economic future depends on it.”

  We have yet to review the score card to see how its information stacks up against already available data in terms of accuracy and clarity, but we intend to keep our eye on the program as the school year progresses toward college application season.

  
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by Chris Morran via Consumerist

uAce And TrueValue Hardware Consider Maybe Not Selling Insecticides That May Harm Beesr

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  (Karen Chappell)

  Bees are important: they aren’t just cool-looking and producers of delicious sweeteners, but they’re essential to pollinate plants and to produce the food that those plants grow. Yet sudden deaths of bees have been linked to a new class of pesticides, neonicotinoids, which some experts say has a devastating effect on the nervous systems of bees.

  The environmental group Friends of the Earth is encouraging True Value and Ace, two supplier co-ops for locally-owned hardware stores nationwide, to stop carrying plant-care products that contain neonicotinoids. Larger home-supply stores like Home Depot and Lowe’s are working toward ridding their stores of the products, but the co-ops haven’t done so yet.

  Why? A spokesperson for Ace explained to the Chicago Tribune that the company wants to obey the law, so you won’t find any banned pesticides in their stores, but they want to strike a compromise between giving customers what they want and protecting the environment. “Ace Hardware is committed to providing our customers with products that not only meet their needs but that are also in compliance with applicable laws and regulations from environmental agencies and regulators,” they explained.

  True Value said that they do offer “alternative pesticides,” including Milky Spore and insecticidal soaps, in it stores, and that the company would like to phase out products containing the controversial substances… as soon as there are effective alternatives.

  Bayer, one of the manufacturers of neonicotinoid pesticides, says that they do not affect bees when they’re used “responsibly and properly, and according to label instructions.”

  Ace Hardware, True Value urged to drop pesticides said to hurt bees [Chiacgo Tribune]

  
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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

uSurfing Outfitter Quiksilver Declares Bankruptcy, Will Close 27 Storesr

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  (James Crawford)

  If you happen to have a gift card for Quiksilver sitting around idle, don’t use it as a tiny surfboard for your fingers anymore: it’s time to redeem it. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy this week and is closing about 20% of its stores. However, the company received approval for a $175 million loan that will let it stay in business while it restructures.

  Confusingly, this bankruptcy only affects Quiksilver USA, and the company’s branches in Europe and Asia/Pacific are doing just fine. The U.S. branch went public on the New York Stock Exchange and went on an acquisitions spree, notably buying up the ski company Rossignol. They now bill themselves as an “action sports company,” but will that action involve selling stuff?

  They plan 27 store closings, out of a total 122 stores. These include brands Quiksilver, lady-surfer brand Roxy, and skateboarding brand DC. All of these brands have retail stores as well as discount “factory outlets,” and the company will close some of both store types.

  Will the future version of the company accept “old” Quiksilver store gift cards? The company announced that it has asked the bankruptcy court for permission to continue accepting returns on old merchandise and honor gift cards, and news on that should come soon. If you have a chance, though, spend ’em of you got ’em.

  If you’re a bargain-hunter, the company is now holding liquidation sales outside of current stores. Maybe “bargain” is the wrong word right now, since Hilco and Gordon Brothers are handling the sale, so you might see some acceptable bargains in a few weeks. There was a weird initial rumor that it would open pop-up liquidation stores in still-empty former RadioShacks, but that turns out not to be true.

  ​Quiksilver to close 27 stores [L.A. Business Journal]

  
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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

uWeigh Your Insurance Options Carefully Before Choosing Where To Buy The New iPhoner

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• Back at the beginning, there used to be that there was only one way to get an iPhone: give AT&T at least $200 and sign a two-year contract. Now that the device is available from all major U.S. carriers and even some minor ones, and for sale worldwide, that gives consumers more options. More options means more possible confusion, though, especially with different ways to buy and insure the same product.

  Phone upgrade plans that are part financing plan and part lease, like the one that Apple will offer when the iPhone 6S goes on sale, are a good idea if you like to upgrade your phone yearly. You’ll want to insure that phone so you’ll have a device to turn in when it’s time to trade up, though, and here’s the catch with Apple’s plan: the monthly payment price includes AppleCare+, their plan that offers some insurance-like benefits but that doesn’t cover loss or theft of your phone.

  The Wall Street Journal’s Digits blog breaks the available purchasing and insurance options down, but choosing what works for you means knowing your own habits. Do you prefer the simplicity of walking into an Apple Store for repairs and other phone issues? Stick with AppleCare+. If you’re absentminded and or have a phone-chomping dog, go with a carrier’s insurance option.

  The AppleCare+ Wrinkle: Apple’s iPhone Upgrade Plan vs. the Carrier Plans [WSJ]

  
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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

uWalmart Knocks $1 Off Price Of 2-Year-Old Gaming Computer, Adds 44 Of Somethingr

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• Sure, most people in search of the finest gaming computer that $1,200 can buy wouldn’t head to Walmart, but that apparently doesn’t stop Walmart from stocking this machine from Alienware. As all lovers of obsolete technology know, Walmart is the place to go for that sort of thing. What this computer lacks in age, it makes up for in strangeness.

  

  (Reddit)

  After spotting the image on Reddit, we did the responsible journalistic thing and wrote to Alienware asking what a “44” is. They actually answered, saying that the “44” is a misprint on Walmart’s part, and that the item really should be marked down so someone will actually buy it.

  It’s possible that the photo is old, maybe dating to the summer of 2013 when a $1 rollback on this computer would have been a reasonable price, if not a really great sale. Now the computer isn’t even available as a clearance item on Alienware or Dell’s site, though some third-party Amazon sellers have it available for as little as $850.

  Forget consoles and custom built rigs, this alienware has a whole 44! [PC Master Race/Reddit]

  
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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist