The technological advances in the automotive industry seem to come at a brisk pace, with Google, Nissan and others announcing that smart, self-driving cars will soon be a reality on the streets of the world somewhere before 2020.
If that happens, it is estimated that car accidents will decrease drastically to the point of being practically non-existent, all due to the (supposedly) infallible, fast-processing, not-distractable computer brains that such cars will have.
But there’s good news regarding car safety until that happens as well. Because technological advances in the automotive industry have not focused only on self-driving cars. Actually, there are some new technologies out there meant to aid human drivers too. And they are pretty awesome and effective.
Like the one that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in the USA wants to see implemented the most. And fast. Due to all of the increasing and increasingly distracted drivers on the road.
Starting with 2018 models, the NHTSA will include automatic emergency breaking (AEB) on the list of criteria for a five-star safety rating. More than that, this September, the NHTSA reached agreements with 10 car companies for them to include the AEB technology as a standard feature in their cars! Way to go NHTSA.
How the technology works is that using radar and camera sensors, the car itself keeps an eye out for possible collisions, in case the driver isn’t paying attention. If such a collision is detected, there are two subsystems that come into play, depending on the scenario.
If the driver is aware that a collision will happen and brakes sufficiently, the AEB technology is not activated. If he is aware, but brakes insufficiently, the first subsystem called the dynamic break support (DBS) does its part by dynamically adjusting the brake intensity, i.e. braking more, if necessary to avoid a collision.
If the driver is not aware and doesn’t break at all, the crash imminent braking (CIB) system comes online, applying the brakes without any input or command from the driver.
The NHTSA estimates that with this technology a standard on all cars, the 1,700 yearly deaths by rear-end collision could be reduced by up to 80%, which is a staggering figure in terms of the significant loss of life that could be avoided.
Which is also why apart from the automatic emergency breaking recommendation and agreements discussed above, the NHTSA has also taken to educating the public at large (and other car makers) about AEB by creating both a website and a video about this technology.
And that’s still not all. Because the NHTSA also has its eye on imposing other advanced safety ensuring technologies like: lane departure warnings and forward collision warnings and electronic stability control (ESC).
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