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Top 10 Hi-Tech Car Safety Features

Safety features play an important role in cars. Of late, an assortment of car safety technology has entered the car market to ensure optimum safety. Below are our top 10 choices for safety technologies in a car.

Tyre-pressure Monitoring

Tyre-pressure Monitoring is now offered in most new car. For example, BMW offers this as standard equipment on all of its models. It is an electronic system designed to monitor the air pressure inside all the pneumatic tyres on automobiles. The system can report real-time tyre-pressure information to the driver of the car, either through a gauge, a pictogram display, or a simple low-pressure warning light.

Adaptive Cruise Control/Collision Mitigation

The Adaptive Cruise Control or the Collision Mitigation is a car safety system designed to reduce the severity of an accident. It operates by using forward-looking radar, installed behind the grill of a car, to detect the speed and distance of the car ahead of it. Adaptive Cruise Control is similar to conventional Cruise Control in that it maintains the automobile's pre-set speed. However, unlike conventional Cruise Control, this system can automatically adjust speed in order to maintain a proper distance between cars in the same lane.

Blind-spot Detection/Side Assist/Collision
Warning

The Blind-spot Detection/Side Assist/Collision Warning is an automobile-based sensor device that detects other automobiles located to the driver?s side and rear. Usually it will respond when the driver takes a turn and the system detects something in the way. The warning could flash a light in the mirror, cause the seat or steering wheel to vibrate, or sound an alarm. This is more of a short-range detection system. But increased warnings indicate potentially hazardous lane changes. Volvo was the first to introduce Blind-spot detection system in its automobiles.

Lane-departure Warning/Wake-you-up Safety

This car safety technology is similar to the Blind-spot Detection/Side Assist technology but with more range. The Lane-departure Warning/Wake-you-up Safety system is a mechanism designed to warn a driver when the car begins to move out of its lane, provided a turn signal is on in that direction, on freeways and arterial roads. These systems are designed to minimize accidents by addressing the main causes of collisions: driving error, distraction and drowsiness.

Rollover Prevention/Mitigation

The Rollover Prevention/Mitigation system lessens the chance of a rollover incident. Rollover Prevention/Mitigation system combines to manage skids as well as control body roll. If the system senses a potential rollover, it will apply the brakes and modulate throttle as needed to help the driver to maintain control. DaimlerChrysler calls it Electronic Roll Mitigation, Ford named it Roll Stability Control, for General Motors it is Proactive Roll Avoidance, on the Range Rover it is Active Roll Mitigation, while Volvo calls it Roll-Over Protection System.

Occupant-sensitive/Dual-stage Airbags

The Occupant-sensitive/Dual-stage Airbags can be deployed at two speeds, or not at all, depending on information sent to the computer from sensors located in the seatbelts and front seats. In less severe accidents, airbags deploy at the lower first stage, usually about 70 percent of full force. In more severe accidents, both stages are deployed. Seat sensors in this system also can detect the weight of passengers and deploy only if the occupant is above a certain weight thereby helping to prevent airbag-related injuries.

Emergency Brake Assist/Collision Mitigation

Emergency Brake Assist (EBA) or Collision Mitigation is a safety system in automobiles designed to ensure that maximum braking power is used in an emergency stop situation. By interpreting the speed and force with which the brake pedal is pushed, the system detects if the driver is trying to execute an emergency stop and if the brake pedal is not fully applied, the system overrides and fully applies the brakes until the Anti-lock Braking System (ABS) takes over to stop the wheels locking up. This brake technology is different from ABS or Electronic Brakeforce Distribution (EBD), in that it recognizes when the driver makes a panic stop and will apply additional brake pressure to help shorten the stopping distance It is often called Brake Assist, although BMW refers to it as Dynamic Brake Control.

Adaptive Headlights/Night-vision Assist

Adaptive Headlights/Night-vision Assist help the driver to see farther down the road and to spot animals, people or trees in the path ? even at nearly 1,000 feet away. An image is generated through a cockpit display, brightening the objects that are hard to see with the naked eye. Adaptive Headlights follow the direction of the car, bending the light as it goes around corners. They may also be speed-sensitive, changing beam length or height, or compensate for ambient light. Night-vision Assist can be executed in different forms, such as infrared headlamps or thermal-imaging cameras.

Rearview Camera

Rearview camera is a special type of video camera that is produced specifically for the purpose of being attached to the rear of an automobile to aid in backing up. Rearview cameras not only protect the car, but also protect children and animals from accidental back-overs. They are also called Backup Cameras or Reversing Cameras.

The design of a rearview camera is distinct from other cameras in that the image is horizontally flipped so that the output is a mirror image. This is necessary because the camera and the driver face opposite directions and without it the camera's right would be on the driver's left and vice versa.

Emergency Response

There are different ways in which an automobile can handle an emergency situation. For example, DaimlerChrysler's Enhanced Accident Response System (EARS) turns on interior lighting, unlocks doors and shuts off fuel when airbags deploy, while Volkswagen's also switches on the hazards and disconnects the battery terminal from the alternator. In addition, General Motors OnStar and BMW Assist both alert their respective response centres of the accident and make crash details available to emergency personnel.