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June 11, 2007
Active safety systems, like anti-lock brakes, traction control, brake assist, and electronic stability control, act without your input. They decide an accident is coming and act to control the car before the accident happens. (Passive safety systems, like seatbelts and airbags, differ in that they engage once an accident has happened.)
But there's a new crop of active safety systems that give you warnings to which you must respond, like the lane departure warning system that beeps at you (M45) or vibrates your steering wheel (2008 BMW 5 Series) when it detects you're departing from your proper lane, according to thecarconnection.com. These systems beep, flash, light up, and cause vibrations in your seat and steering wheel. There are a host of these baby sitters, which are being developed because we aren't just driving - we're falling asleep, drifting and fiddling with the audio or our phone and people are getting killed.
Interested parties like the big insurance companies have been pushing these technologies behind the scenes mostly because they want fewer fatalities, and fewer payouts on claims. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) is conducting a study on the lane departure warning system now. Results will be in over this summer and IIHS and will probably recommend the system when the study is complete. The big question is whether or not drivers are going to embrace these systems.
Posted by 
at 10:06 AM to Safety
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