Graham Hill Explains Some Of The Latest Car Technology

Saturday, 22. October 2011

You may be led to believe that manufacturers were simply concentrating on fuel consumption and CO2 output these days to the point of obsession, when designing cars, leaving everything else to simply tick over. And to an extent you are right with many manufacturers moving from full spare wheels to skinny spares and now the totally impractical repair kit in order to save weight and improve the CO2 output. What happens when you get a blow out at midnight in the middle of the country? Absolutely ridiculous in my opinion.

Anyway, you would be quite wrong to think this is all that’s going on as we are seeing recently some stunning new designs from the design teams and there are some amazing developments in safety which few customers are aware of.

Ford is attempting to lead the way with their latest Focus. Winner of two advanced awards from safety testers EuroNCAP they now have an enhanced Intelligent Protection System that includes high tensile steel in the body to absorb energy more efficiently.

Also sensors activate the safety systems such as all round airbags, an advanced steering column and retracting pedals that collapse away from the driver to reduce injury in an impact.

And there’s more, the list just starts here, in addition the following are either standard or available on the cars as an option. First we have Active City Stop, a low speed safety system designed to assist in slow moving traffic and at speeds below 20mph.

If sensors detect that the car in front has suddenly stopped the brakes are pre-charged and applied automatically if the driver doesn’t react.

Another feature, I believe introduced by Citroen, is Lane Departure Warning which alerts the driver, both visually and by vibrating the steering wheel.

Below 38mph it de-activates and the driver can adjust the sensitivity to suit his driving style. Forward Alert warns the driver with a visual and audible warning where there is a high risk of collision with the car in front.

Driver Alert monitors driver behaviour (don’t be course – not that sort of behaviour) and detects deviation caused by driver fatigue. A warning appears in the display.

Seat Belt Reminder provides alerts if an occupied seat does not have the seat belt fastened. Many cars have the next item as standard these days, Auto-Dimming Rear View Mirror, which dips automatically when it detects headlight glare from behind and sets the mirror to a dimmed setting.

Blind Spot Information System does what it says on the tin, warns drivers when a vehicle is detected in the blind spot. Traffic Sign Recognition recognises traffic signs such as speed limits and displays them in the information display.

For those that don’t like parking there is Active Park Assist which is a semi-automatic parallel parking system. Auto High Beam Control detects front or rear lights of cars in front as well as street lights and activates or deactivates the high beam.

Adaptive Cruise Control & Speed Limiter System help the driver to maintain a constant speed as well as a safe distance behind cars in front using a radar system . The speed limiter stops you from exceeding the speed limit when set.

Finally there is Emergency Brake Light which detects when a vehicle is undergoing emergency braking and starts flashing the brake lights, obviously useful when cars in front on a motorway have come to a sudden halt. By Graham Hill