Three times in the last decade or so I've been introduced to what I believed at first sight to be game-changing safety technologies, and it has surprised me how slowly they've been received.
Stability control has easily gained the widest acceptance, probably because it helps deal with a loss of control, which is a condition that scares people mightily. For the record, stability control will help to stop a vehicle from sliding out of control and crashing into other vehicles or sliding into a ditch and rolling over. But car companies have been slow to include this adaptation of the anti-lock braking system to their vehicles for cost reasons.
Crash-notification and vehicle-locating hasn't done too badly in recent years, as people come to appreciate that getting help to the scene of an
accident as quickly as possible can be just as important in saving a life as an airbag. Crash-notification and vehicle-locating will for sure save lives, but only of those people who drive vehicles with OnStar service (which is almost exclusively GM products) or the people lucky enough to run into an OnStar-equipped vehicle. No other company is showing much interest in developing this technology, which seems like the height of irresponsibility to me. Anyone who's genuinely serious about the safety of their family who doesn't actively consider an OnStar-equipped vehicle the next time they get a new SUV, van, car or whatever should be ashamed of themselves.
The third critical safety feature to come along in the last few years is active cruise control, which probably doesn't get the respect it deserves because of its name. Imagine how much more attention it would be paid if it were called something like "automatic braking and crash avoidance technology."
For legal reasons alone that will never happen, but the truth is that that is exactly what active cruise control is. Essentially, it keeps an unblinking eye on what's ahead of your vehicle and will automatically slow it down if it gets too close to the vehicle in front of it, even to the point of bringing your vehicle to a stop without your involvement. It would also help you avoid stationary objects you couldn't see, and cut back on the carnage in those gruesome multi-vehicle pileups in the fog.
The original intent of this technology may indeed have been to provide drivers with an upgrade on what the traditional cruise control, which is in truth an anti-safety device because it will actually cause a vehicle to crash into something if the driver falls asleep or passes out or doesn't notice a
change in the road conditions or a sharp curve or any number of things. If car companies tried to launch regular cruise control in today's more safety-conscious and litigious times, it would never turn a kilometer in a private vehicle.
Ironically, a fear of litigation is one of the things that has kept the car companies from bringing active cruise control to more new vehicles. The fear has been that people in the U.S. will sue if the active cruise control doesn't stop them from running into the vehicle ahead of them no matter how irresponsibly they themselves have been, and they undoubtedly will since they sue about everything else down there.
But there are some companies that already offer active cruise control on a couple of their upscale models, and here's hoping that more follow suit because vehicles that can stop themselves would cut down significantly on the number of deaths and injuries. Along with that, there'd be fewer crashes in general, and that would make an enormous difference in the amount we spend on vehicle repairs and insurance.
Stability control has easily gained the widest acceptance, probably because it helps deal with a loss of control, which is a condition that scares people mightily. For the record, stability control will help to stop a vehicle from sliding out of control and crashing into other vehicles or sliding into a ditch and rolling over. But car companies have been slow to include this adaptation of the anti-lock braking system to their vehicles for cost reasons.
Crash-notification and vehicle-locating hasn't done too badly in recent years, as people come to appreciate that getting help to the scene of an
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The third critical safety feature to come along in the last few years is active cruise control, which probably doesn't get the respect it deserves because of its name. Imagine how much more attention it would be paid if it were called something like "automatic braking and crash avoidance technology."
For legal reasons alone that will never happen, but the truth is that that is exactly what active cruise control is. Essentially, it keeps an unblinking eye on what's ahead of your vehicle and will automatically slow it down if it gets too close to the vehicle in front of it, even to the point of bringing your vehicle to a stop without your involvement. It would also help you avoid stationary objects you couldn't see, and cut back on the carnage in those gruesome multi-vehicle pileups in the fog.
The original intent of this technology may indeed have been to provide drivers with an upgrade on what the traditional cruise control, which is in truth an anti-safety device because it will actually cause a vehicle to crash into something if the driver falls asleep or passes out or doesn't notice a
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Ironically, a fear of litigation is one of the things that has kept the car companies from bringing active cruise control to more new vehicles. The fear has been that people in the U.S. will sue if the active cruise control doesn't stop them from running into the vehicle ahead of them no matter how irresponsibly they themselves have been, and they undoubtedly will since they sue about everything else down there.
But there are some companies that already offer active cruise control on a couple of their upscale models, and here's hoping that more follow suit because vehicles that can stop themselves would cut down significantly on the number of deaths and injuries. Along with that, there'd be fewer crashes in general, and that would make an enormous difference in the amount we spend on vehicle repairs and insurance.