Federal regulators and the auto industry are taking a more lenient approach than safety advocates like when it comes to phasing in automatic braking systems for passenger cars, according to records of their private negotiations. The technology automatically applies brakes … Source: Claims Journal

A judge on Friday sent the Texas teenager who used an “affluenza” defense in a fatal drunken-driving wreck to adult court, raising the possibility that he could get jail time for the 2013 crash that killed four people. Ethan Couch … Source: Claims Journal

An auto safety advocate is calling on the government to reopen an investigation of rear-crash fires in older Jeep SUVs after finding at least 11 more deaths since the vehicles were recalled. The deaths show that the recall repair – … Source: Claims Journal

Is your boss ethical? Does he or she do what’s right, as opposed to what’s profitable? If so, they may turn downright abusive the next day. New research on leader behavior by Russell Johnson, associate professor of management at Michigan … Source: Claims Journal

Last year’s income tax season was marked by an explosion of refund theft. Will this year be any different? Increased protections may cut down on fraud but will likely draw out the wait for your money. Changes will be visible … Source: Claims Journal

As the Takata airbag saga drags on, concerns are growing that tens of millions of U.S. drivers with cars that haven’t been recalled could be at risk of death or injury from the potentially defective devices. Federal safety regulators last … Source: Claims Journal

Federal emergency officials reported Tuesday a surge in the number of California residents who have purchased flood insurance, most likely in response to a rainy El Nino winter. Officials with the Federal Emergency Management Agency said insurers have written more … Source: Claims Journal

Impact Forecasting, Aon Benfield’s catastrophe model development team, has launched its U.S. severe thunderstorm (STS) scenario model to help insurers more accurately estimate annual losses based on historical data. Aon Benfield is the global reinsurance intermediary and capital advisor of … Source: Claims Journal

In Jokkmokk, a tiny hamlet just north of the Arctic Circle in Sweden, where temperatures can dip to 50 below, Volvo Cars’ self-driving XC90 sport-utility vehicle met its match: frozen flakes that caked on radar sensors essential to reading the … Source: Claims Journal

A recent study by University of Alabama at Birmingham student assistant John Booth, III, and UAB Department of Epidemiology Professor and Vice Chair Gerald McGwin, Ph.D., published in Sleep Medicine linked the use of prescription sleep medicines containing zolpidem among … Source: Claims Journal