Car safety - Road Safety - Highway safety

Active Safety System: Active safety system implies the addition of safety devices to avoid accidents in the first place. Anti lock braking (ABS),anti skid control, Vehicle stability control (VSC) and a host of other microprocessor assisted safety devices form the core of the active safety systems. High intensity Discharge headlamps with a manual level control and even a rear-view back-up camera amongst a slew of high technology devices supplant the safety features of a modern automobile. You will find some of these active safety devices in the recent production cars like Toyota Sienna 2004 minivan. All wheel drive models even have standard 17-inch run-flat tires which allow you to safely continue driving for up to 100 miles even when you have a flat. Some cars sport a dynamic Laser Cruise control which maintains a preset speed or a preset distance to a moving car ahead. Be that as it may, safety features of your car allow you to avoid collisions and accidents supplanting your driving skill. But they do not replace your reflexes or safe driving skills. So drive carefully and safely !

Anti lock braking system (ABS): A vehicle will follow the path steered by its front wheels as long as the wheels are turning and gripping the road. In poor road surfaces or in poor weather conditions, the wheels lose traction resulting in a skid - if you apply brakes in an emergency.The best technique to stop in such conditions is - cadence braking - pumping the brake pedal several times in quick succession which forces the wheels to regain traction and effect a deceleration. Electronics has taken over this cadence braking in ABS. In some cases, the CPU which effects the braking in quick succession draws real time information from individual wheels whether the wheel is still in rotation. This helps to suitably change the braking force required for a quick deceleration on a wheel-by-wheel basis.

ABS is capable of providing shorter stopping distances in difficult situations compared with a conventional system. With ABS, you simply push on the brake pedal as hard as necessary to make the stop. If traction is marginal, you may feel a pulsing sensation through the brake pedal, which is quite normal. Throughout the stop, you have steering control, so you can swerve or turn if required to avoid an obstacle.

Technology has been at the forefront in some of the recent cars for adding safety to the occupants - Smart Airbags which use a G force sensor to control the rate of inflation and Smart Car seatbelts which adjust the tension of the belt according to the physical weight of the seat occupant. They even have a Head-Up display splashed across the Windscreen showing what an Infra-red Camera at the front sees so that you can gain considerable visibility against poor weather condition. The possibilities are endless with the technology ...

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