Safety features protect you from yourself
Innovations aim to keep drivers safe — and maybe even prevent their mistakes
There was a time, not all that long ago, when automotive safety efforts focused primarily on surviving and reducing the injuries resulting from crashes.
That focus led to advances in everything from seatbelts and airbags to dynamic head restraints and collapsible crash structures.
While incremental progress continues on that front, those features are now de rigueur in even the most basic models and the primary safety focus has shifted away from just surviving to preventing or avoiding crashes in the first place.
The holy grail of that pursuit, in the minds of many, is the fully autonomous car, which will enable drivers and their corresponding human errors — the causes of more than 90 per cent of all crashes — to be wholly removed from the equation.
With cars able to communicate directly with each other and the infrastructure around them, without the disruptive factor of human error, crashes need never occur. At least, that’s the theory.
It’s a utopian ideal, espoused even by such celebrated automotive seers and certified “car guys” as former GM/Chrysler/Ford/BMW executive Bob Lutz. And it might be achievable some decades down the road. But not just yet.
Contrary to much mass-media reportage that might suggest otherwise, there are no fully autonomous cars on the road that you can buy now. None.
Full autonomy — the ability for a vehicle to go anywhere, on any road, in any conditions, without a human driver — is still somewhere far in the future. Perhaps decades away, according to some experts.
What we do have now, however, are a lot of experimental vehicles with varying levels of autonomous capabilities — and limitations — being tested in multiple environs all over the world, in an attempt to advance both the technology and the understanding of how it interacts with the environment. Including with people.
Not coincidentally, in the process, those experiments are garnering a lot of publicity to hype both the concept of self-driving cars and the brands involved.
At the same time, however, they are helping develop individual features and systems that provide today’s new cars, trucks and utility vehicles with impressive semi-autonomous driver-assistance capabilities, making them safer and more capable than ever before.
Arguably, the most advanced of such vehicles available here is the 2018 Cadillac CT6, with its optional Super Cruise technology, which automatically controls both vehicle speed and steering in highway driving — accelerating and decelerating as circumstances dictate.
It is the first truly hands-free driving assist system offered in Canada as others require a driver to at least touch the steering wheel periodically to confirm that he or she is in control.
Super Cruise can only be activated on “limited access highways” — those with clearly defined on- and off-ramps — that GM has meticulously mapped to be compatible with the 3D LiDAR sensors on the vehicle. That mapping includes every kilometre of such highways in Canada and the United States, the company says.
While the Cadillac system does not require the driver’s hands to be on the wheel, it does still require the driver to supervise the process. A small camera located on the steering column uses infrared lighting to track the driver’s head position and ensure that his or her attention is on the road. If not, it provides a warning and, if necessary, brings the vehicle to a safe stop.
Other automakers offer similar if not identical systems and one doesn’t even have to indulge in a luxury vehicle to get the benefit of these latest safety technologies. Nissan’s all-electric Leaf, as well as its compact Rogue CUV, for example, offer that brand’s ProPILOT Assist technology.
It’s a hands-on system that helps drivers navigate stop-and-go traffic, as well as maintain lane control and a set vehicle speed and distance to the vehicle ahead, with a simple twobutton operation.
Even parking is becoming easier and safer. In addition to numerous systems, such as Ford’s Active Park Assist, which literally steers the vehicle into and out of either a parallel or perpendicular parking space, there are systems such as Toyota’s Intelligent Clearance Sonar that not only provides warnings but restricts engine output and applies the brakes if the driver gets too close to another vehicle or object, such as a wall, when parking.
Technologies such as these examples aren’t limited to specific automakers. Many brands offer similar features, so it’s worth asking about them when you’re shopping for your next vehicle.
They may be able to help protect you from yourself.