Safety first
WHEN CHOOSING which car to buy, safety should be one of the main considerations. The following is a non- exhaustive list of the available vehicle safety technologies that you might want your next purchase to have.
According to the technology- oriented website Lifewire, most adaptive cruise control systems, which combine conventional cruise control with a type of sensor, make use of radar or laser sensors capable of determining the relative position and speed of other vehicles. “That data can then be used to automatically adjust the speed of the vehicle that’s equipped with adaptive cruise control,” the site says. These systems may also include a warning system for imminent collisions. Some can even automatically apply brakes and operate in stop and go traffic.
Forward collision warning system detects obstacles in front of the car and gauges how close they are and how fast the car is approaching them, says US News and World Report. “When the system senses that you are approaching another car too fast to avoid an accident and are running out of time to brake, it will beep loudly inside the cabin and flash a warning.” The publisher notes that the radar systems are limited in that they can only detect generic obstacles and their proximity. “Some systems also use cameras mounted behind the top of the windshield and image mapping to distinguish between pedestrians, bicyclists, cars, and trucks,” it adds.
Some vehicles have a blind spot alert feature, “a light on the side view mirror that begins blinking anytime another vehicle is in your blind spot,” Business Insider says. Some blind spot alert systems can also issue an audio alert to let drivers know that they cannot change lanes yet. The Germanowned American news website describes blind spot as a “game changer for driver safety” in spite of its simplicity. “Just think of how many times you’ve almost switched lanes only to jerk back because a car was in your blind spot,” it says.
To prevent the car from hitting anything, a feature called automatic emergency braking is very helpful. US News says automatic emergency braking systems can avert ac- cidents if the car one is driving is not going more than five to 20 miles per hour faster than the car it might hit. “If you’re going faster than that, you’ll still hit the car, but not as hard as you would have without the system,” the site says.
Electronic stability control lends drivers a hand in maintaining control over their cars in a variety of circumstances. Its main function, Lifewire notes, is to compare driver’s inputs with the vehicle’s behavior so that if the vehicle is not responding correctly, it will take some corrective actions. “One of the primary circumstances where ECS can come in handy is cornering. If an ECS system detects either oversteer or understeer when a vehicle is taking a corner, it is typically capable of activating one or more brake calipers to correct the situation,” the site says.
Lane keeping assist will prevent the car from wandering onto a different lane. “A camera- based system detects the lane marking to keep you in the center of the lane. If the system notices that you are moving too close to the left or to the right, it will gently steer you back to the proper position,” Business Insider explains.
Adaptive headlights, as the name suggests, are capable of adjusting both the brightness and angle of headlamps. “Traditional headlamps illuminate a fixed area in front of a vehicle. Most systems have two settings, and the higher setting is designed to increase sight distance at night. However, high beams can be hazardous to oncoming drivers,” Lifewire says. Adaptive headlight systems may angle the beam to illuminate winding roads and adjust the brightness to avoid blinding other drivers.
A growing number of cars are being equipped with rear-view camera, which may be simple but not entirely useless. “Once you shift to reverse, the screen automatically shows you what is behind you. It’s incredibly handy when getting out of tight spaces, and helps ensure you don’t hit something or someone behind you,” Business Insider says, adding that regulators in the United States, realizing the value of this kind of technology, are making rear-view visibility mandatory in new vehicles by 2018.
Other manufacturers have gone further, making automotive night vision systems available in their vehicles. “Automotive night vision systems are designed to help drivers avoid obstacles in adverse driving conditions. These systems typically include an LCD that’s mounted somewhere on the dash, though some of them include a heads up display on the front windshield,” Lifewire says. Two kinds of night vision systems exist — one deploys thermodynamic camera to sense heat, the other uses infrared light source to illuminate the area the vehicle faces.