New Car Safety Features
Hi I’m Ed Smith, a West Sacramento car accident lawyer. In 1958, Nils Bohlin developed the three-point seat belt which has saved more than one million lives. Since then auto safety has become increasingly important, the goal of course being the reduction of auto accidents, injuries and fatalities. Manufacturers are scrambling to outdo each other to create new and innovative safety features. Technologies have moved quickly from vehicle structure changes such as airbags, cage and crumple zones and anti-lock brakes in the 1980 and 90’s, to automobiles that can drive themselves.
Tire technology
From the tires up, new safety technology can be found throughout your car. Tires can now notify owners when they need to be replaced made with built in pressure sensors which also give information such as tire depth, pressure, and mileage. Flat tire, there are now “run flat tires” that can be driven at 50 miles an hour while flat. Stability control technology is helping drivers stay safe by slowing each wheel individually during a turn and helping drivers to maintain control in a roll over situation. Using sensors, cameras and lasers, auto manufactures are working on the driver being able to see his surroundings with a goal of 360 degrees.
Some of the other current technology available for safety:
- Sensor technology which will set the distance from the vehicle ahead, as well as vehicle speed.
- Warnings of lane drifting technology that tracks the vehicles lane placement and brings it back to the middle of its lane.
- Driver drowsiness warnings.
- Park assistance technology which will parallel park your car for you.
- Collision avoidance and warning systems that apply the brakes automatically to avoid an accident.
- Voice control for hands off adjusting of windshield wipers, climate control and navigation.
- Sensors to help avoid intersection collisions, giving notice if an approaching vehicle runs a red light.
- Rear view cameras which show on a dashboard screen what is behind the car.
- Sensors which watch blind spots, sensing approaching traffic from the front and side.
- Safety features protecting us from hitting pedestrians and animals at night by highlighting them with special adaptive headlights and night vision cameras that tell the vehicle to apply the brakes.
- New airbags which have adaptive sensor control to detect the weight and size of occupants to adjust deployment during an accident.
- Emergency crash notification which notifies first responders that an accident has happened and the location.
- Technology to warn of unsafe weather conditions, by tracking the experience of drivers ahead.
What’s next?
Vehicle to vehicle communication is the next step, where vehicles will be able to ease traffic congestion and avoid accidents by communicating via WI-FI with each other. Transmitting information about direction, speed and location to each other every 10 seconds. The National Traffic Safety Administration is currently considering mandating this communication technology on future cars.
Self driving cars
Car companies are saying that the driverless car could save 10 million lives around the world within a decade. There are currently 20 companies working on producing self-driving cars by 2020. Prototypes are currently being tested on the streets of California and across the country. Google’s self-driving cars have driven over 2.3 million miles already. Who knows what else the future holds?
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West Sacramento Car Accident & Wrongful Death Lawyer
I’m Ed Smith, a West Sacramento auto accident lawyer. If you or a member of your family have suffered injury or wrongful death, please call me at (916) 921-6400 or toll free at (800) 404-5400 for free, friendly advice.
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Source of New Car Safety Features – www.autoaccident.com
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