New Collision Avoidance Systems
Driving is a potentially dangerous activity, but one that most of us need to participate in on a daily basis to get to work and school, among other tasks. Luckily, with time it’s become safer as engineers create new innovations to make crashes less deadly (such as airbags). This is not a process that has created complacency with success: the push to make driving safer continues to move forward, particularly evidenced by the new collision avoidance systems.
This new technology alerts the driver to brake when getting close to a collision; depending on the design, it will look for rear end collisions, front end, or both. There are also some that will brake for the driver instead of simply alerting, which is an excellent safety precaution in case of driver inattention. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety tested this new technology on nineteen models, and gave excellent marks for all of them.
With these kinds of results, the National Transport Safety Board is calling for all new cars to feature these collision avoidance systems, which the auto industry is currently resisting. However, when consumers see how effective these features are, they will be certainly expecting it in their cars, which will drive up demand. Just as airbags took some time to be included in all cars, we should expect collision avoidance systems to follow a similar path. These innovations can save thousands of lives per year (especially important considering children often being in the car too), making them worth the extra money on a vehicle purchase.
