Tag Archives: Consumer Reports

Consumer Reports pushes carmakers on automatic emergency braking

By Nick Carey

DETROIT (Reuters) – Influential U.S. magazine Consumer Reports on Thursday turned up the pressure on automakers to include automatic emergency braking (AEB) as standard on new U.S. models by withholding its 2019 annual top vehicle picks from best-selling brands like General Motors Co’s Chevrolet.

“We’ve been pushing for this feature for a long time because it’s very good at preventing crashes,” Jake Fisher, Consumer Reports’ senior director of automotive testing, told Reuters. “We have telegraphed for some time that this was coming.”

Millions of prospective auto buyers consult the magazine’s rankings, which are based on road testing, reliability, safety and owner satisfaction scores.

A growing number of new vehicle models now include AEB as standard, including Subaru Corp’s Ascent, Consumer Reports’ 2019 top pick for the midsize SUV category.

Last year Chevrolet, GM’s best-selling brand, won top picks for its fully-electric compact Bolt sedan and its full-size Impala sedan.

GM, which constantly stresses it is aiming for “zero crashes, zero emissions and zero congestion,” did not respond to a request for comment.

This year’s top picks included several wins for Toyota Motor Corp, including for its full-size Avalon hybrid electric sedan and the Toyota Prius. Subaru won for its compact Forester SUV and its mid-size Ascent SUV.

Tesla Inc’s rollout of its mass-market Model 3 electric sedan hurt the brand’s overall standing, knocking it down 11 spots to No. 19 out of 33 brands ranked by Consumer Reports.

Fisher said Tesla’s ramp-up of production of the Model 3 had been accompanied by rising reports of problems with the car’s body, interior, windows and paint, though he added Model 3 owners said they love their vehicles despite reliability issues.

Those reliability issues mean that Consumer Reports no longer recommends the Model 3, Fisher said.

Subaru was ranked as Consumer Reports’ top car brand, followed by Hyundai Motor Co’s luxury Genesis then Volkswagen AG units Porsche and Audi in third and fourth place respectively. Toyota’s luxury Lexus brand ranked fifth.

GM’s Chevrolet brand was ranked 23rd, while the Cadillac brand ranked 26th and GMC 27th.

Ford Motor Co’s Ford brand ranked 20th and its Lincoln brand 8th, but its best-selling F-150 pickup truck was named best pickup.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV’s Chrysler brand ranked 22nd, with its Dodge brand 25th and Jeep brand in 29th place.

The automaker’s Fiat unit finished last among 33 brands rated.

(Reporting By Nick Carey; Editing by Bernadette Baum)

Consumer Reports to consider cyber security in product reviews

A lock icon, signifying an encrypted Internet connection, is seen on an Internet Explorer browser in a photo illustration in Paris April 15, 2014. REUTERS/Mal Langsdon

(Reuters) – Consumer Reports, an influential U.S. non-profit group that conducts extensive reviews of cars, kitchen appliances and other goods, is gearing up to start considering cyber security and privacy safeguards when scoring products.

The group, which issues scores that rank products it reviews, said on Monday it had collaborated with several outside organizations to develop methodologies for studying how easily a product can be hacked and how well customer data is secured.

Consumer Reports will gradually implement the new methodologies, starting with test projects that evaluate small numbers of products, Maria Rerecich, the organization’s director of electronics testing, said in a phone interview.

“This is a complicated area. There is going to be a lot of refinement to get this right,” Rerecich said.

The effort follows a surge in cyber attacks leveraging easy-to-exploit vulnerabilities in webcams, routers, digital video recorders and other connected devices, which are sometimes collectively referred to as the internet of things.

“Personal cyber security and privacy is a big deal for everyone. This is urgently needed,” said Craig Newmark, the founder of Craigslist who sits on the board of directors at Consumer Reports.

In one high-profile October attack, hackers used a piece of software known as Mirai to cripple an internet infrastructure provider, blocking access to PayPal, Spotify, Twitter and dozens of other websites for hours. Another attack in November shut off internet access to some 900,000 Deutsche Telekom customers.

Security researchers have said the attacks are likely to continue because there is little incentive for manufacturers to spend on securing connected devices.

“We need to shed light that this industry really hasn’t been caring about the build quality and software safety,” said Peiter Zatko, a well-known hacker who is director of Cyber Independent Testing Lab, one of the groups that helped Consumer Reports establish the standards.

The first draft of the standards is available online at https://thedigitalstandard.org.

Issues covered in the draft include reviewing whether software is built using best security practices, studying how much information is collected about a consumer and checking whether companies delete all user data when an account is terminated.

Jeff Joseph, senior vice president for the Consumer Technology Association, called the decision by Consumer Reports a “positive step” but cautioned that the group “must be very clear about how they score products and the limitations of what consumers can expect.”

(Reporting by Jim Finkle in Boston; Editing by Peter Cooney and Lisa Shumaker)