Innovations in Car-Safety Technology Summer 2007 Issue
Automakers have been working hard to improve our safety while on the road. In designing cars in recent years, they have incorporated many cutting-edge features that can help drivers avoid accidents.
These features are available now from some automakers and will become standard in many vehicles in the future. Here is a sampling of some of these recent advancements in car-safety technology:
- Tire-Pressure Monitoring: Sensors at the vehicle's wheels are able to alert a driver if the air pressure is too low by giving an audible warning and/or displaying a light on the car's instrument panel.
- Adaptive Cruise Control/Collision Mitigation: Cruise control can now adjust the throttle and brakes of your vehicle while you are driving to keep you a safe distance from the vehicle in front of you.
- Blind-Spot Detection/Side Assist/Collision Warning: This feature may flash a light in your mirror, sound an alarm, or cause your steering wheel to vibrate if it detects an object or car in your blind spot.
- Rear-View Camera: This camera works with your navigation system to provide a wide-open shot of the view behind your vehicle.
- Emergency Response: An emergency-response system can turn off the vehicle's interior lights, unlock the door, and shut off the fuel when air bags deploy.
- DriveCam: This camera produces video of 10 seconds before and after an accident/impact from the viewpoints of both the front and rear of the car. This is used now in many fleet vehicles.
While many of these features are included with a new vehicle at an extra cost, it can be well worth the cost to reduce the risk of accidents while on the road. It is our hope that these technologies will help save lives and prevent accidents, now and in the future.