And Uncle Ben told us all “With great power comes great responsibility.” To shoulder the immense responsibility of driving a ton or more of heavy metal on wheels, the guys at R&D departments in automotive companies have come up with some innovative solutions to keep the drivers as well as the pedestrians safe. So let’s find out what the people with big heads have been up to.
1. Automated Emergency Braking
Sounds fancy but it’s quite simple to understand. What the AEB does is use cameras and sensors on the front of your car to monitor what’s in front of you. Whenever the sensors detect that your vehicle is getting dangerously close to something in front of it, the speed of the car is reduced to the maximum extent so that the impact of the collision is much less. This will help negate a lot of incidents where the drivers are distracted by something else and lose focus on what’s in front of them. If a driver crashes into someone even though they were distracted, the professionals at davidchristensenlaw.com/detroit-car-accident-lawyer/distracted-driving/ claim that the afflicted party can still file a claim. The AEB will help drivers avoid the claims which might waste their precious time, money, and energy.
2. Transparent Hoods
Now, this sounds something straight out of a sci-fi video game, and it is pretty cool! As the name suggests, you’ll be able to see what’s going on under the hood of your car. This feature will especially be useful for SUVs and other off-road capable vehicles since the roads don’t usually have any obstacles lying in between. The feature has already been implemented in a Land Rover concept and is undergoing further trials. If your mobile or laptop screen is broken right now, you’re not going to enjoy getting the screen on your bonnet fixed.
3. Fatigue Detection
We all know the feeling you get when you just keep driving for hours and the road doesn’t seem to end. Drivers get drowsy and many times even fall asleep while driving, which can be pretty dangerous, both to the driver and to others around them. Bosch has come up with technology that monitors the irregular patterns in driving like sudden deceleration or veering sideways. If the system detects any such irregularities then the car alerts the driver to take a break. That’s one expensive alarm to wake you up.
4. Speed Monitoring
Some drivers just don’t get the concept of speed limits and then they end up on a hospital bed taking others along with them for company. If Speed Monitoring is implemented on the roads then your car will monitor the speed with its GPS and alert you when you over speed. It can be even modified to automatically limit the maximum speed of your car. All of this is fine until your car snitches on you and alerts the nearby local police, which it shouldn’t if it wants to be washed and cleaned.
5. Intelligent Intersection
This might be one of the most needed features in our cars right now. We bet everyone can recount at least one incident where they witnessed a crash at an intersection or were involved in it themselves. This technology will utilize a sensor to help the drivers be aware of any oncoming driver, pedestrian, or cyclist in their blind spot. The predictions about signal changes and blind spots will help reduce the unfortunate crashes drastically. If implemented, I’ll not have to cross the intersections at a high speed of 10 km/hr anymore. So these are some of the most unique and promising innovations in the driving industry. Many companies have already started testing these out in their prototypes and high-end models. It’s expected that even the economy cars will soon be equipped with such high-end technology once the trials are completed and the mass production begins. Most of these technologies need proper infrastructure and metalled roads to function properly. But there’s no denying the fact that even with our existing roads, these innovations will help reduce the unfortunate accidents by a huge margin, and every life that’s saved matters.
