According to researchers at The Hartford and MIT, smart headlights, emergency response systems and reverse monitoring features rank highest in car technologies. As more and more of these features are incorporated into vehicles, we believe that it’s important for drivers to be knowledgeable of and use those technologies that can enhance safe driving capacity, comfort, and confidence.
- Smart headlights: adjust the range and intensity of light based on the distance of traffic and to reduce glare and improve night vision
- Emergency response systems: offer quick assistance to drivers in the case of a medical emergency or collision, often allowing emergency personnel to get to the scene more quickly
- Reverse monitoring systems: warn of objects to the rear of the vehicle to help drivers judge distances and back up safely, and helps drivers with reduced flexibility
- Blind spot warning systems: warn drivers of objects in blind spots, especially while changing lanes and parking, and helps those with limited range of motion
- Lane departure warning: monitors the vehicle’s position and warns the driver if the vehicle deviates outside the lane, helping drivers stay in their lane
- Vehicle stability control: helps to automatically bring the vehicle back in the intended line of travel, particularly in situations where the driver underestimates the angle of a curve or experiences weather effects, and reduces the likelihood of a crash
- Assistive parking systems: enable vehicles to park on their own or indicates distance to objects, reducing driver stress, making parking easier, and increasing the places that a driver can park
- Voice activated systems: allow drivers to access features by voice command so they can keep focused on the road
- Crash mitigation systems: detect when the vehicle may be in danger of a collision and can help to minimize injuries to passengers
- Drowsy driver alerts: monitor the degree to which a driver may be inattentive while on the road and helps alert drivers to the driving task
And here is a question: which car actually comes with all of these gadgets? How many of us can afford driving it? Hopefully, as everything electronic the cost of ownership goes down and the majority of drivers would allow these expenses. Although, as everything electronic, there will be new technologies lowering the risks, like self-driving cars.