5 New Innovations in Car Safety Technologies

May 24, 2010 by Ann

By Ann Smarty

Our cars are becoming chicer, more fuel efficient and safer every day, as car manufacturers search for ways to satisfy our desire for the best and the safest.

Today’s vehicle effortlessly blend comfort, performance and safety, thereby offering car buyers more than they’ve ever had before in terms of features and styling. Cutting-edge safety technology has also grown by leaps and bounds, especially over the past few years. Technology continues to produce the best safety features that are designed to protect ourselves, our passengers and other motorists and pedestrians.

Here are our picks for the top five best new innovations in cars safety technology:

1. Tire pressure monitoring systems – Tire pressure monitoring systems provide the latest and greatest technology for eliminating low tire pressure on our cars, which can result in an accident or simply poor gas mileage. A tire pressure monitoring system can also alert us in seconds to a flat tire, thereby reducing the chances of becoming involved in a car accident due to a flat tire.

“If you are making a turn too fast and the car senses a potential rollover, the rollover prevention system will apply the brakes and modulate the throttle as needed to help you maintain control of the vehicle.”

2. Blind-spot detection – Finally! There now is a system for alerting us if we attempt to make a turn and an object or car is in our blind spot. This technology responds as soon as the driver puts on the turn signal, thereby preventing a collision caused by the driver’s blind spot.

3. Rollover prevention – Most of the newer SUVs are equipped with electronic stability control systems, but rollover prevention systems take the concept one step further. If you are making a turn too fast and the car senses a potential rollover, the rollover prevention system will apply the brakes and modulate the throttle as needed to help you maintain control of the vehicle. Ford calls it Roll Stability Control, while GM calls it Proactive Roll Avoidance.

4. Sensitive air bag systems – In older model cars, the airbag deploys when a front-end crash occurs. However, many of today’s vehicles come equipped with more sensitive air bag systems, which sense the difference in the size and weight of the occupants and deploys the air bags accordingly. This technology may even be able to detect that an individual is not wearing a seat belt or that he or she is positioned abnormally in the seat and compensate the air bag deployment to accommodate this.

5. Night vision assist – Properly operating a vehicle takes on a whole new meaning during the nighttime hours. Some of the newest vehicle technology allows drivers to see further down the road, courtesy of thermal-imaging cameras, thereby allowing them to spot animals, pedestrians and other vehicles that they normally would not have seen.

These cutting-edge safety technologies will offer drivers not only added safety when behind the wheel, but may also offer them discounts on their car insurance. Many car insurance companies will offer drivers of safe vehicles, such as those with newer safety technology, discounts on their car insurance, thereby saving money while at the same time protecting themselves, their passengers, and other motorists and pedestrians. The safety technology of today and tomorrow is far-reaching and impressive, to say the least.