Insurance News - Thursday, May 16, 2013

Here are the leading auto insurance headlines from ONTARIO AUTO INSURANCE TOPICS ON TWITTER for Thursday, May 16, 2013:

• How driverless cars could change everything - not just the end of auto insurance but the end of driving.
• A new University at Buffalo study of crashes involving cars and sport utility vehicles (SUVs) has found those crash ratings are a lot less relevant than vehicle type.  In head-on collisions between passenger cars and SUVs, the UB researchers found that drivers in passenger cars were nearly 10 times more likely to die if the SUV involved had a better crash rating.
• To eliminate impaired driving the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board is recommending such things as reducing BAC limits to 0.05 from 0.08 and requiring ignition interlocks for all offenders.
• Since the the middle of last decade the number of miles driven by Americans has been dropping to large part because many young people don't own cars. 
• I find this incredible but a teenager has designed a working prototype for an in-vehicle system he calls "HardHit," which can help detect whether someone may have suffered a concussion during a car accident.
• Maddie Di Muccio, a Newmarket city councillor, suggests that auto insurance cuts are all smoke and mirrors because insurers will compensate by raising property insurance rates.  I think she is right.  Though I don't agree insurers are leaving Ontario in droves.
• The Queens Park soap opera continues as Andrea Horwath backs away from bringing down the government.