DOES NEWER MEAN SAFER?

The debate over whether more advanced safety features actually mean safer cars (and not just cooler ones) has largely been put to rest. Advanced Driver Assistance Systems, or ADAS, save lives. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has been involved in vehicle safety improvements for decades. NHTSA, which will celebrate its 55th year in 2025, sets and enforces safety standards, and develops innovative approaches to vehicle safety, such as the New Car Assessment Program. (NCAP was expanded in 1993 to include the 5-Star Safety Ratings system, and marked 40 years in 2019.) Here’s a look at some overall vehicle safety improvements that have made cars safer over the decades:

Electronic stability control

Electronic stability control systems, required in all new cars since September 1, 2011, use automatic computer-controlled braking of wheels to assist you in maintaining control if you begin to lose control of your vehicle.

Backup camera

A rearview video system, also known as a backup camera, aims to help prevent backover crashes by showing objects that are directly behind your vehicle, and if an object may be coming into your vehicle’s path. Originally, the issue with backover crashes was thought to be the inability to see directly behind you, but further investigation showed a high number of incidents happened because a person was coming into the vehicle’s path from a side.

Blind spot detection

In response to crashes where drivers did not see what was next to them because of a blind spot, blind spot detection was developed. It uses either digital cameras or sensors to monitor if a vehicle is in an adjacent lane. The system, which is offered as standard or optional equipment on many new cars, sends a warning to the driver that it may be unsafe to merge or change lanes.

Driver assistance 

The term “Driver Assistance” can cover a range of safety features, such as: forward collision warning, automatic emergency braking, lane departure warning, and adaptive cruise control.

Overall, the NHTSA estimates that vehicle safety developments helped raise the annual number of lives saved from 115 in 1960 to 27,621 in 2012. Cumulatively, these improved safety technologies saved over 600,000 lives between 1960 and 2012.  

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, IIHS, funded by the insurance industry, conducts crash tests that help measure a vehicle's ability to protect its occupants in a collision. One of those tests, the side-impact test, was recently updated to apply 81 percent more crash energy. For 2023, the IIHS overhauled the criteria for its Top Safety Pick+ award, the highest honor the organization can bestow on a vehicle. In addition to the side-impact test, a car must also score a Good or Acceptable rating for its headlights, and achieve an Advanced or Superior rating in the daytime vehicle-to-pedestrian prevention test and the new nighttime vehicle-to-pedestrian test.

U.S. News and World Report considers crash test data from both the NHTSA and the IIHS when it assigns safety scores to vehicles. In general, auto manufacturers have really stepped it up in the past few years when it comes to safety. Even base trims of affordable cars can be found with long lists of advanced, high-tech features, which not too long ago would have cost thousands of dollars extra, or even been available only with luxury models. Features like traffic sign recognition, automatic emergency braking and rain-sensing windshield wipers help reduce crashes and minimize driver fatigue.

HIGH-TECH CARS: THE SMART CAR

Safety features today go way beyond back-up cameras. Although we are not yet at fully automated cars, the research and innovation developed in the quest for AVs have led to some extraordinary safety features:

Automatic Emergency Braking Systems (AEBS). Going a step beyond simpler and possibly distracting collision warning systems, AEBS puts the brakes on rear-end collisions. Sensors continually monitor the distance of vehicles in front of the car. If the system detects that a collision is imminent, it intervenes, assisting with braking if the driver is braking (but not hard enough) or automatically applying the vehicle's brakes if the driver doesn't respond. The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) reports that up to a third of police-reported crashes involve a rear-end collision.

• Lane Keeping Assist. Some of the leading reasons for lane-drift crashes are driver distraction, illness, and drivers who have drifted off themselves — and are sleeping at the wheel. Lane Keeping Assist raises the bar above Lane Departure Warning systems, which provide audible warnings and are often manually disabled by drivers, by taking corrective action to keep the vehicle centered in the lane.
• Drowsiness Detection System. Building on the technology that powers Lane Departure Warning, Drowsiness Detection Systems monitor how often you drift from your lane, watching for changes in driving patterns that can indicate fatigue or microsleep, the type of sleeping that happens when you doze off momentarily. Microsleep in your recliner at home is safe. When driving, those seconds spent in slumber-land can be dangerous or even deadly. More advanced systems use sensors that watch the driver's face and glance patterns for signs of drowsiness.
• Pedestrian Automatic Emergency Braking. Warning systems that detect pedestrians (or bicycles) are becoming more prevalent but face the same challenge as many onboard warning systems. Audible warnings can be a distraction as you try to figure out what's making that beeping sound — and why. More advanced systems use cameras or radar to detect pedestrians in your path and then automatically apply the brakes if you don't respond quickly enough.
• Traffic Sign Recognition. We've all had some moments of apprehension because we didn't notice a stop sign or a street sign indicating a speed limit change. Fortunately, the new wave of high-tech cars remains ever attentive, and a growing number of vehicles can read the street signs that we might miss and then relay that information on the dash or head-up display.
• Vehicle-to-Vehicle Communication for High Tech Cars. The NHTSA is studying Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) communication, specifically as it relates to two safety systems for cars: Left Turn Assist (LTA), which warns of oncoming traffic when turning left, and Intersection Movement Assist (IMA), which warns if it's unsafe to enter an intersection. The NHTSA estimates that these safety systems, powered by cars that communicate with other cars on the road, could save over 1,000 lives per year.

For a detailed analysis of vehicle crashes and fatalities prevented by Advanced Driver Assistance Systems, see:  

https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/motor-vehicle/occupant-protection/advanced-driver-assistance-systems/data-details/ 

Unfortunately, even vehicles equipped with all the latest safety features still get into accidents. In addition, most cars on the road today do not have all the high-tech assistance devices discussed above, due to being older or less expensive models. If you are involved in an accident, contact Dave Thomas at The Thomas Law Firm for a free evaluation of your legal claim.