New Car Safety Technology and Features

Automotive safety technology is constantly evolving and improving. Every year, cars are being released with new technology designed to assist your drive and protect you on the road.

Vehicle safety technology generally falls under two categories – active and passive:

• Active safety features refer to the vehicle’s technology compensating for human error and assisting the driver in avoiding or reducing the severity of a crash (e.g. the car applying the brakes for you).
• Passive safety features provide protection when you do have a crash, such as seatbelts and airbags.

When you are looking at buying a new or used car, it is good to understand the safety technology available in modern cars.

What are some things you may want to consider?

Autonomous Emergency Braking

One of the most popular and more recent safety technologies in the automotive market is Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB). Put simply, this technology steps in when your vehicle senses a collision. In the event that you are slow on reacting, the car will step in and automatically apply the brakes for you to avoid or minimise the severity of a collision.

Adaptive Cruise Control

Adaptive Cruise Control is a sophisticated speed maintaining system which automatically increases and decreases your speed based on the proximity of the vehicle in front of you. If the vehicle ahead of you speeds up or slows down, the adaptive cruise control will mimic this automatically to give you a smoother, less frustrating drive. On top of this, if you are to suddenly hit traffic, the Adaptive Cruise Control will slow you down.

Lane Keep Assist

This technology dramatically reduces the risk of driving off the road or slowly drifting into the other lane without meaning to. Most Lane Keep Assist systems use cameras to scan the road ahead, and if you begin to stray toward or over the line without intent, the system applies pressure to the steering wheel to pull you back into the centre of the lane autonomously. Do keep in mind, Lane Keep Assist does not drive the car for you, it is simply a tool which assists you in the event of distraction. If your hands are off the wheel for too long, the car will alert you.

Blind Spot Warnings

Not to be confused with Lane Keep Assist, Blind Spot Warnings do not trigger any autonomous control by your car. It simply flashes a light in your side mirrors to alert you of cars which are in, or approaching your blind spot. Countless incidents are caused by people simply not seeing cars in their blind spot when changing lanes, so this simple technology can dramatically reduce the chance of that happening.

When you are thinking about purchasing a car, you don’t necessarily have to buy a brand new car to benefit from these features. Buying a new car doesn’t always mean that you are getting the latest and greatest safety technology either. However, later model new and used cars are likely to have enhanced safety technology features.

If there are specific features that you want, have a chat with one of the brokers at Car Search Brokers. Our team will provide independent expert advice on the quality of these features from various manufacturers and can make absolutely sure the vehicle you are buying comes with the safety technology that you want.