21st century automotive safety capabilities

Our society is getting more and more dependent on technology. Technology and digitalisation have massively influenced the way people interact with each other, the way we work, and even our simple day-to-day activities.

The automotive industry is one that also keeps evolving rapidly, with new security systems and advanced technology featured in the majority of recently manufactured cars. From lane departure warning systems, which alert drivers of other cars presence, to a newly developed facial recognition software, which analyses a driver’s facial expressions and notes tiredness, safety features within cars has increased tenfold over the past ten years. In this article, we run through some recently developed automotive safety features.

Face recognition

According to a 2018 study conducted by Teensafe, 80 per cent of road collisions are caused by tiredness and distraction, with 3,287 deaths everyday due to car crashes.  The data revealed that averagely, nine of these deaths are strictly related to distraction.

Looking at the figures, innovative technologies such as the face recognition in vehicles will be highly beneficial and almost essential to help reduce such incidents. The face recognition system keeps the driver’s minor movements monitored, including eye blinking, head movements, and facial expressions. It consequently recognises when these denote tiredness in the driver.

In the case where the system detects a tired driver, it sends audible or visible alerts in an attempt to draw the driver’s attention and get them to focus on the road.

In extreme cases where the driver doesn’t react to the alerts given by the face recognition system, the technology initiates an automatic emergency stop of the vehicle, to prevent the driver from a potential collision.

Blind spot detection

Who would have imagined that your own car could come with a technology that watches where you physically can’t yourself?

You’ll remember being told multiple times, as a learner driver, to look carefully, make sure you’re always checking your side mirrors, as well as looking over your shoulder before changing lanes or making any other maneuvers. Fast forward a few years, we now have a blind spot detection technology that sees what we as drivers might miss. This technology warns the person at the wheel of any approaching vehicles, by flashing orange or yellow lights in the door mirrors.

360 degree surround view camera

Nowadays, drivers are always searching for more. Similar to the blind spot detection, the 360 degree surround view camera technology is a great asset that gives the driver a complete vision of the area surrounding his vehicle. It’s available in new cars such as the Volvo XC40, which comes with this innovative feature. Every car that offers the 360 degree surround view camera comes with a display in the vehicle, where a high-resolution image of the area surrounding the car is shown.

When a driver is maneuvering in a particularly tight space, or in the event of a limited visibility due to other vehicles in sight, the driver will be able to watch the screen display in the car, which will provide a clear vision of both sides of his vehicle from.

Safety Exit Assist

The safety exit assistant is one of the most innovative automotive technologies of the 21^st century.

It’s one of the most beneficial features for families with your children. The way this technology works is that safety exit assistant uses a radar to detect when another car, motorcycle or bicycle is approaching while attempting to open one of your back doors.

Families with children often know the risk of a child accidentally opening the back door of a vehicle, and because this is highly dangerous and has caused issues for many families in the past,  a car that offers such technology is highly beneficial to reduce or even completely eliminate the risks.

Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC)

This is another technology that can be found in many cars nowadays. Adaptive Cruise Control enables cars to accelerate or slow down in respect to traffic conditions and vehicles ahead on the road. More specifically, this system uses laser or radar systems, fitted in the front of the car, to scan and detect the presence and proximity of other vehicles. Then, when a car ahead of you slows down, your vehicle will automatically slow down to keep the safe distance and to avoid a collision. The system also automatically accelerates your vehicle when traffic requires so.

If the Adaptive Cruise Control senses a potential collision, it automatically slows the vehicle down, braking heavily and then immediately tightens the seatbelts for the driver and passengers in the vehicle.

These are just a few of the many car technologies that we can find in our society today. Many believe that these have come to make driving experience safer and to make life easier for drivers and passengers.