Technology continues to make inroads into the automotive space as the years roll on. Automotive safety has gone on to become a major purchasing decision point. Automakers on their part are pulling out all stops to ensure that the new cars rolling off the assembly line are better and safer than the previous generation products that they replaced.
Given how congested the world is becoming, and the chaos on the streets, it is no surprise then to see a luxury car that stops for pedestrians these days. This is particularly true in the developed markets, where the associated infrastructure & systems are already in place. Okay, visualize the morning commute. Grid lock on the streets, every one trying to inch forward, tempers frayed & trigger happy drivers waiting to dart into the next available gap. The signal up front turns to green & your line starts to move forward. You step on the accelerator to speed things along, when suddenly, the car in front of you steps on the brakes. There’s not enough time for you unfortunately and between the frantic downshifting and the panic braking, you rear-end the guy. Yep, there goes the work day.
There was no way this could have been avoided, unless, you were behind the wheel of those new cars, which come with avoidance control systems. These work in tandem with your braking system, a forward sensing camera & enough processing power to make a supercomputer from yesteryear smile in appreciation. As soon as the system detects that the car in front is starting to brake, your collision avoidance system steps in. It down-shifts, applies the brakes, while varying the braking pressure to maximize efficiency while keeping traction going, before bringing the car to a stop safely. All this is done in a matter of moments, definitely faster than what it took me to actually type out the sentence.
Auto manufacturers have in-fact, taken these collision avoidance systems to the next level and you can now purchase a luxury car that stops for pedestrians. It works on the same principle, as the collision avoidance system, only much better, and advanced enough to work with people. Multiple camera systems are combined with advanced radar technology, to ensure that the car’s computer can ‘see’ what’s ahead of it at all times. This is then shared seamlessly with the multiple safety systems in the car, keeping them in the ‘ready-to-deploy’ position, which is then activated near-instantaneously, as and when the need arises.
While the technology is still in its early stages, car manufacturers are working on perfecting them across varied driving conditions in markets around the world. The day is not far however, where pedestrian avoidance systems shall be available on all cars.
