Accident Avoidance Features

It is safe to say that most of us rely on cars for transportation from one place to another. Many of us have also experienced a car accident at one point, and if not, it is always a concern for many drivers and passengers. What if the technology in your vehicle can help alert you of a accident before it happens? Even though many cars don’t take control away from the driver, would our lives be safer if the car’s computer was aware of something that the driver was not?

Emerging in many new cars today are various kinds of accident avoidance systems. These are systems that are integrated into your vehicle and aid your driving to help prevent accidents. Even though some safety features exist today, many of these are subtle and the driver is usually unaware they exist. These new systems interact with the driver and even control the speed of the vehicle.

One of the first systems worth noting, is the Collision Warning System. This is basically a system that alerts the driver if a collision is predicted if no significant changes are made to alter the current route. Even though this system doesn’t stop the car, it prepares the brakes for maximum performance.


Next, adaptive cruise control can actually speed up and slow down the car depending on the speed of other drivers around. Like the Collision Warning System, this uses radar to sense the speed of the surrounding cars.


Last, the Blind Spot Information system alerts the driver if there is a vehicle in your blind spot. It lights up LED’s on the side view mirror and shows the driver whether there is a vehicle in that spot. It also can alert the driver if there are approaching vehicles that are blocked from view while backing up. I didn’t embed this video because the video is annoying and the guy has bad hair. Here is the link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiWhCL1vS4s

Finally, this shows what could potentially be in store for the future of accident avoidance on vehicles. Because many accidents happen due to human error, if the computers in the vehicle could recognize these before the driver, many crashes may be completely avoided.