If you’ve never dreamed of becoming a mechanic, there are still some basic car maintenance skills you should have in your repertoire if you own your own vehicle or drive someone else’s. These handy skills won’t keep you from requiring the services of a professional mechanic. But they can help you take better care of your car or even assist you with roadside troubles.

Let’s take a look at 5 important things you should know how to do to ensure driving safety or to help protect your investment.

Basic Car Maintenance Skills Every Vehicle Owner Should Have

#1: Learn how to check your oil.

Researchers at Cornell University have developed a way to help autonomous vehicles create "memories" of previous experiences and use them in future navigation, especially during adverse weather conditions when the car cannot safely rely on its sensors.

Cars using artificial neural networks have no memory of the past and are in a constant state of seeing the world for the first time -- no matter how many times they've driven down a particular road before.

The researchers have produced three concurrent papers with the goal of overcoming this limitation. Two are being presented at the Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR 2022), being held June 19-24 in New Orleans.

Like most drivers, you probably don’t think about your car’s brakes until you have to use them. When it comes to hot and cold weather, however, it’s essential to consider how weather can impact your vehicle’s braking system. Here are a few things you should know:

What are brakes?
If you’ve ever driven a car, you know how important brakes are. Brakes are mechanical devices that slow, stop, or reverse a vehicle. They’re a vital component of the braking system and work with other parts to stop your car safely when needed. The braking system uses friction to slow or stop your vehicle as quickly as possible so you can avoid accidents on the road.

The importance of brakes to safety.
Brakes are the most critical safety feature of your vehicle. They keep you from crashing, help you to stop quickly, and allow you to come to a full stop after starting downhill. If your car or truck brakes aren’t working correctly, it could be dangerous for you and those around you.

ORLANDO, Fla. (Jul 26, 2022) – A coalition of the nation’s leading experts in automobiles and auto safety—AAA, Consumer Reports, J.D. Power, National Safety Council, PAVE, and SAE International—today released a set of expanded and updated recommendations for universal terms for advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) features.

The six overarching categories on the list are collision warning, collision intervention, driving control assistance, parking assistance, driver monitoring, and other driver assistance systems. Driver monitoring is the newest category, added this year. A virtual briefing for press and key industry stakeholders on the latest recommendations will be held on Tuesday, July 26 at 2 pm EDT.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (July 11, 2022) — Pump prices declined again, falling another 12 cents since last week to $4.67. The dip in the national average for a gallon of gas occurred despite a slight rise in demand, likely due to robust July 4th holiday automobile travel. AAA forecasted that 42 million people would hit the roads for the holiday weekend, a new record.

“Usually, more people buying gas would lead to higher pump prices,” said Andrew Gross, AAA spokesperson. “But the price for oil, the main ingredient in gasoline, has fallen and is hovering around $100 a barrel. Less expensive oil usually means less expensive gas.”

According to new data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA), gas demand increased from 8.92 million b/d to 9.41 million b/d ahead of the 4th of July holiday, while total domestic gas stocks decreased by 2.5 million bbl. Typically, these supply/demand trends would put upward pressure on pump prices; however, falling oil prices have contributed to lower pump prices.