Are the New Safety Features on Cars Safe?

With technology advancing and expanding rapidly, many can say these technological improvements make ones life easier. Smartphones can play movies, surf the world wide web and even pay bills. Washers and dryers now offer LED screens that can wash and dry your clothes according to weight and text you when the load is finished. Newer cars today come equip with improved features such as parking assistance and Bluetooth technology that can benefit the driver as well as hurt them. The constant update of these electronic advancements car potentially harm a driver if one becomes too accustom to their “assistance.”

Vehicles such as the Toyota Prius, Mercedes Sedan and the Acura MDX provide their driver with new features such as Forward Collision Avoidance; which scans cars for potential hazards. Also, Lane Keeping is a new feature that warns the driver when they have wandered out of the lane and the Adaptive Cruise Control as well as Adaptive Headlights. Not only do these features enhance the owners driving experience, features such as Parking Assist allow for a driver to sit back while the car calculates if the car will be able to fit in a parallel parking spot. At this point, it seem as though the new technological advancements in the car allow the car itself to drive without anyone in the drivers seat.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, The Volvo XC60 system has slashed more than thirty-three percent of injury claims and the Mercedes models also had an astonishing fifteen percent  decrease in bodily injury claims just this year alone. Although all these advancements aid a driver, one should never rely solely on these electronics to take the wheel. A driver should always be cautious on the road, no matter what kind of assistance they have.

This entry was posted in Science and Technology. Bookmark the permalink.