Before an Accident: Prevention

Car technology to improve reaction time

Driverless cars may not be too far off. But for now, human beings are still behind the wheel — and with 90% of accidents due to human error, car manufacturers are looking for ways to make their products as safe as possible. Joel Camarano, of the United Services Automobile Association recently said, “Advanced crash-avoidance features are becoming more common — almost expected.” Two of these technologies are proving to be particularly effective: automatic braking and adaptive headlights.

Automatic braking is included on new vehicles from Nissan, Toyota, and BMW. BMW’s “Active Assist” technology uses sensors to monitor the car’s surroundings and gently applies the brakes before a vehicle comes in contact with any stationary object. Moritz Werling, BMW Research Engineer said, “The ultimate goal is to prevent any collisions at all. How far we can get will depend on how many people actually use the technology. When we have 100% of the cars equipped with collision avoidance there is a good chance that we can almost prevent any kind of accident.”

Adaptive headlights improve safety during night driving: they follow the gaze of the driver and focus more light on the part of the road where the driver needs it most. Forthcoming features include automatic brightness adjustments based on ambient light, as well as forward-facing cameras that activate high or low beam lights depending on traffic conditions.

Phone technology to reduce distractions

Cell phone use is a key element of driving distraction: in 2014, the National Safety Council reported that it was involved in 26% of crashes. Companies that make phones and apps are stepping up to help.

“We looked at what people do with their phones in the car, and it was scary,” said Andrew Brenner, the lead project manager of Google’s Android Auto team, in speaking with The New York Times. “You want to say to them, ‘Yikes, no, don’t do that.’” Android Auto is a new dashboard system that puts smartphone capabilities on the car’s center screen, so navigation, communication, and music can be controlled with voice interaction or taps requiring brief glances, just as if you were looking at your speedometer. Light years ahead of a mere Bluetooth pairing, this new technology uses auto-optimized apps in sync with the cloud, while your phone screen remains dark and inactive to prevent distractions. In the coming weeks and months, dealerships around the country will begin selling cars capable of running Android Auto and Apple’s CarPlay, a similar service that features voice recognition and communication through Siri.

Phone manufacturers and network operators are also trying to help. Motorola’s Assist automatically detects when you’re driving, and reads out your texts and tells you who’s calling so you don’t need to handle your phone. AT&T’s DriveMode responds to the sender of incoming texts and emails, saying the recipient is driving and will get back to them.

Of course, not all distractions can be mitigated, but these new technologies will go a long way in making the roads safer for all of us.