Car Safety Features All Drivers Will Benefit From In 2024

Car safety has come a very long way from, for example the 1950s when the airbag was invented or 1885 when the first seatbelt, designed to prevent tourists from falling out of New York taxis, was patented. It is hard to believe that the wearing of seatbelts didn’t become compulsory in the UK until 1983.

It’s also hard to believe that many at first objected to wearing a seatbelt but most drivers soon realised the sheer common sense of a safety feature that can save your life. Fast forward to 2024, and modern vehicles are packed with features which not only enhance the safety of people in the vehicle but also beef up the security of the vehicle itself. These include GPS trackers,which allow you to monitor your vehicle’s location and status 24/7.

With this in mind, let’s take a look at the very latest safety features available for 2024 and beyond.

Automatic Emergency Braking

Although testing for this began in 2014 and it was fitted to some new cars in 2022, it will soon be standard on all new cars. It works through sensors which detect obstacles ahead to assess the likelihood of a collision. The brakes will automatically apply if the driver fails to take action. Figures produced by Thatcham Research state that AEB could save around 1100 lives and 122,860 casualties in the UK over the next decade.

Reversing Detection With Camera or Sensors

A camera attached to the rear of the car or a sensor attached to the bumper measures the distance to an obstacle and alerts the driver.

Driver Drowsiness Attention Warning

This monitors head and eye movements to detect sleepiness and issue an alert for the driver to stop and rest.

Lane-keep Assistance

This alerts the driver if the vehicle strays too close to lane markers, and will either correct the steering or brake on one side to keep in lane.

Emergency Stop Signal

Such signals will alert the driver behind by making your brake lights blink if you brake too sharply.

Event Data Recorders

Also known as Black Boxes, these record driving behaviour and data including when there is a collision. Newer models can also alert emergency services.

Intelligent Speed Assistance

The vehicle receives speed limit information from a digital road map and the speed limit is relayed to the dashboard to help the driver stay within the speed limit.

All of the above features are already compulsory on new cars in the EU but are gradually appearing as standard on new vehicles in the UK.

It’s clear that technology is constantly advancing to keep us as safe as possible while we’re driving and technology also plays a crucial part in keeping our vehicles secure and safe from theft. Top of the list must be vehicle trackers which, depending on your requirements and your budget, have a multitude of features designed to allow you to monitor your vehicle’s location at all times, alert you to unauthorised movements and can alert a designated security operation should the worst happen.

For advice on the many benefits of vehicle trackers and their installation requirements call us.