More than 38,000 Americans die in crashes on U.S. roads every year, and 4.4 million receive injuries requiring medical attention. Without a doubt, road traffic safety is one of the biggest concerns, not only in the USA but across the world.
In view of these alarming numbers, more and more automobile manufacturers are investing their time, expertise, and resources to create cars that are safe on the road. The latest models dominating the roadways come equipped with some genius inventions that help in avoiding accidents.
Table of Contents
Let us introduce you to the technologies that keep you safe while driving:
Speed assistance monitoring
Although you have modern means like the WinIt app to help you fight your speeding ticket in the most hassle-free way, the speed assistance monitoring function in the cars helps you avoid getting a speeding ticket.
This feature ensures that you do not exceed the speeding limit, and hence, keeps you safe while driving. The system does not allow you to go beyond the legal speed limit. If you try to cross the permissible limit, the system issues an audio and visual warning.
Forward collision warning (FCW)
This latest technology uses laser, radar, and camera to detect the possibility of a crash and alert the driver. Equipped with GPS sensors, the system spots fixed objects, such as a nearing sign.
Forward collision warning completely prevents or reduces the severity of the collision.
Rear cross-traffic alert
As the name says, this device detects the presence of any approaching object and issues a warning. Quite similar to a backup camera, rear cross-traffic detects approaching people, vehicles, animals, carts, and other objects and warns you before you hit them.
Most of the latest vehicles have this security system that triggers a warning sound and flashes indicators on the side mirrors to warn you of an impending collision when backing out of parking space.
Most vehicles that have rear cross-traffic alert also have rear AEB or rear automatic emergency braking. When the system detects any object, it applies brakes automatically to keep your car from colliding with it.
Autonomous cruise control (ACC)
Autonomous cruise control is the more upgraded version of the regular cruise control. It automatically adjusts the speed of your car to keep a safe distance from other cars driving ahead of you. So, with this, you can cruise your car swiftly on the road without having to hit the brake and reset it.
Another advanced version of cruise control is Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control, which collects the information from mobile infrastructures, roadside beacons, and satellites to figure out the distance between the cars and adjust it accordingly.
Automatic emergency braking (AEB)
Another latest technology that ensures a safe drive is automatic emergency braking. Also known as a pre-crash safety system, active city brake, or active city braking, this feature warns you about a potential crash and helps you use the maximum braking capacity to avert collision and keep yourself safe. If you do not respond to the warning, the feature independently hits the brakes to prevent a crash.
AEB can be categorized in-
- The low-speed system, which comes into play on city streets. It detects the cars moving ahead of you to keep you from crashing into them and averting minor injuries.
- The high-speed system, which efficiently scans up to a distance of 200 meters ahead of you. It utilizes a long-range radar for fast speed.
- The pedestrian system, which detects pedestrian movements according to the direction of your car and warns you of any potential crash.
The bottom line
Apart from these, several other features bring safety to a vehicle. They go a long way in preventing fatal crashes.
With these safe driving technologies shielding drivers from accidents, the numbers are expected to slip down soon.
