Happy Trails

Today’s Vehicles Are Loaded with Safety Features

Motorists are supposed to keep their eyes on the road. That goes without saying, right?
Yet, think of all the distractions that could cause a momentary lapse in concentration, from bickering kids in the back seat to a sip of coffee to a quick glance at the radio dial. If traffic suddenly slows during one of those moments, an accident can occur.
That’s the idea behind adaptive cruise control.
“It’s a built-in collision-prevention system that maintains a set distance from the car in front of you. It lights up on the dashboard when you’re approaching a solid object faster than you should be,” said Brian Farnsworth, a sales consultant with Marcotte Ford in Holyoke, adding that the system is typically paired with brake support “In addition to giving you visual and audio cues, it fully charges the brakes for you, so when you hit the brakes, they’re ready to respond as fast as possible.”
But that’s certainly not the only high-tech vehicle-safety advance of recent years. Equipment that alerts drivers to hazards while backing up are standard on many models, said Michael Oleksak, general manager at Burke GMC in Northampton.
“The rear-vision camera is a tremendous safety feature for the driveway, if someone has small children,” he said. “It gives you a complete panoramic view of the back, and there’s a backup alarm system, so if you’re backing up, and you get within 30 inches or three feet, it starts to beep, and you also see a light flash. Then, as you’re getting closer and closer, the beeps come more often and also louder.”
Michael Filomeno, Marcotte’s general manager, said many Ford models already feature the backup camera, and the device will be standard on more models next year. Meanwhile, pending regulation from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration could soon make this technology standard on all vehicles — just one indication of how safety concerns are driving innovation among manufacturers.
“Airbags, anti-lock brakes, things that were big safety features in the ’80s, are pretty standard things now, but they’ve evolved,” Filomeno said. “We have better technology, things like adaptive cruise control, a new generation of airbags — it’s a whole different vehicle than it used to be.”
For this issue and its focus on auto sales, BusinessWest examines what’s new in vehicle safety, and why it matters to dealers and drivers alike.

Something Old, Something New

Of course, safety concerns are nothing new for carmakers.
“While new technologies are greatly advancing safety features, auto manufacturers have had the consumer’s welfare in mind since the automobile’s inception,” notes Greg Fowler in Auto Trends magazine. “Many aspects of today’s vehicles taken for granted were initially included to improve the automobile’s marketability by making it seem less of a daredevil’s toy and more useful to the mainstream public.”
Until recently, vehicle safety features advanced slowly at best. According to Auto Trends, safety glass was first used for automobile windshields in the 1920s, and Buick was the first manufacturer to install a flashing turn signal in 1938. Meanwhile, cars had been on American roads for more than a half-century before seatbelts were introduced in 1949.
The ’70s and ’80s saw airbags and anti-lock braking systems become commonplace, but even those features have come a long way.
“Years ago, a car had two airbags,” Oleksak said. “Now, depending on the vehicle, you might have eight or 10. There’s side curtain and head curtain and side impact.”
Farnsworth added that Ford vehicles recently introduced front knee airbags on both the driver and passenger side, as well as inflatable seatbelts for children in the rear seats of SUVs.
Across the auto industry, in fact, airbags are anything but old hat. Because airbags have been deemed responsible for blunt-force injuries and even deaths, especially to children, over the years, all passenger vehicles since 2006 have been designed with advanced frontal airbag systems, the industry term for a deployment technology that automatically detects the size and position of the passenger and the severity of the crash, then uses that information to vary the force with which the bags inflate.
Oleksak was quick to note that many safety advances of modern times are decidedly low-tech, while others rely on more complex equipment.
“It’s a small thing, but we have child locks you can program though the locking system,” he said. “Another small feature, but very helpful, that you see in a lot of the Chevy trucks is the flasher in the side mirror — when you put the directional signal on, the mirror arrow flashes. Someone up close to you might not see the brake light, but they’ll see your mirror flashing.”
More advanced features do the opposite, alerting drivers to fellow motorists they might not see in their blind spots. That’s the purpose of the lane- departure feature, which alerts drivers when they’re drifting from their lane without a turn signal on, and also warns them when not to change lanes. “Let’s say someone is passing you on the right and is very close to you,” he said. “You see something flash, so you know not to pull over to the right.”
Even the simple act of parallel parking is being boosted by technology. An increasing number of carmakers are offering a feature that detects the size of the parking space, guides the driver into the starting position, and then parks the car automatically, hands-free — which, as it becomes more commonplace, could theoretically prevent many minor scrapes and fender benders.

Saving Lives
Of greater concern, of course, are serious accidents that cause injuries and deaths, and automakers understand those stakes. For example, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety estimates that up to 1.2 million crashes could be prevented or mitigated each year if all vehicles boasted some kind of forward collision avoidance system — preferably paired with autonomous braking systems or adaptive headlights, which rotate to better light the car’s path on curves and reduce glare for oncoming traffic.
The institute also credits electronic stability control — a recent innovation that helps drivers correct a swerving vehicle by applying brakes on individual wheels — with reducing the risk of a single-vehicle fatal crash by 50%, which is why it’s now standard equipment across the industry.
Oleksak said car buyers are increasingly aware of newer safety features, and are coming to expect them. “Even on the entry-level Chevy Cruze, you’re getting most of these features. Some are standard, some optional, depending on the model.”
Also popular with GM drivers is OnStar, a satellite service that provides navigation assistance but also features automatic crash response, alerting emergency services of an accident and its location. Drivers can also trigger that response manually in case of, say, a heart attack or a carjacking. Ford has a similar service called Operator Assist.
“That’s one of the features you hope you never have to use, and others, you use all the time,” he said of vehicle-safety devices in general. “Cars have really leaped ahead with safety. Just look at the way they’re designed, with crumple zones, the way the hoods fold. Years ago, in an accident, the hood came back through the windshield. Nowadays, with crumple zones, the hood folds a certain way, so as not to injure a person.”
Safety glass has improved as well, Oleksak noted. “Years ago, the glass was jagged, but now, the windshield breaks into a million pieces, almost like ash.”
Meanwhile, Farnsworth pointed to the roll-stability feature now standard on many Ford SUVs as just another example of safety advances drivers often take for granted. “People don’t always know about it. Our job is to let them know what’s available. And there are so many features now.”
Fowler notes in Auto Trends that safety advances have not only led to fewer accidents, but fewer insurance claims, which can lower insurance rates for everyone. “Cars do not drive themselves,” he notes, “but technological advances are getting us close.”
“Ford’s got a lot of cool stuff people don’t even know about,” Filomeno added. “When they come in, they’re not coming in looking for adaptive cruise, necessarily, but when you show them the car and tell them what it has, they’re really awed by it.”

Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]