Photo by Anatoli Nicolae on Unsplash

The more engineers, designers, and manufacturers advance vehicle technology, the less there is for drivers to do. Today’s newest features can hold a set speed, keep the car centered in its lane, and even brake and accelerate on their own. Is the answer to human error simply to remove the human?

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, around 94% of crashes are the result of human error. In this context, could asking less of drivers lead to fewer crashes?

In this final installment of our Safety History series, we’ll explore the newest vehicle safety technologies and look at the innovations that may lie ahead.

The Newest Safety Tech

Today’s safety technologies don’t just warn drivers of danger. They help drivers avoid it altogether.

Many new cars offer adaptive cruise control, an upgrade to traditional cruise control. It still holds a set speed without the driver touching the gas pedal, but it also lets drivers choose a following distance, automatically slowing down when the vehicle ahead does and then speeding back up when the road clears. For example, a driver can set their car to stay 2 seconds behind the vehicle ahead, up to their chosen speed.

Many higher trims now include lane centering technology. The older version of this tech, often called lane-keep assist, is still common in lower trims. Lane-keep assist treats the lane lines as borders and steers the car back only when it drifts too close to one, which can cause it to “bounce” from side to side. Lane centering, however, actually maps both sides of the lane at once and makes small, continuous steering adjustments to keep the car centered and straight in the lane.

Another big safety innovation is the 360-degree camera. Going beyond a traditional backup camera, it gives drivers a birds-eye view of their vehicle, showing precisely where every corner and side sits in relation to its surroundings. This makes parking and maneuvering in tight spaces simpler and safer. Many systems also pair the camera view with proximity warnings for hazards nearby.

These are just a few of safety features that have recently arrived on the market. As automakers race to meet consumer demand, vehicle technology continues to evolve.

The Future of Safety

Predicting the future of vehicle technology means sifting through a lot of promises about what’s just around the corner. For instance, auto makers have long promised autonomous driving modes that would not only steer and brake for drivers, but free them from having to watch the road at all.

Fully autonomous, driverless vehicles now dominate the conversation around vehicle innovation. Waymo and Tesla, for example, are running driverless taxi services in select U.S. cities.

Not every ride goes smoothly, however. There is no shortage of anecdotal evidence suggesting that autonomous vehicles still struggle with real-world situations that can’t be predicted or planned for.

While today’s autonomous vehicles still have plenty of problems, these technologies will continue to evolve and improve. In the meantime, hundreds of millions of drivers are on the road right now, making choices behind the wheel that determine whether collisions happen.

Alertdriving offers more than 25,000 lessons designed to help remind drivers to prioritize safety. By teaching transferable skills grounded in real-world driving, our lessons encourage human drivers to connect what they learn to the situations they face on the road.

Technology can help drivers improve their safety, but the best defense against risk is still a safe, alert driver behind the wheel.

Sources:

https://mcphillipsshinbaum.com/what-percentage-of-car-crashes-are-caused-by-human-error/

https://www.autotrader.com/car-shopping/360-camera-car

https://www.tesla.com/support/robotaxi/cybercab

https://waymo.com/faq/