There are many new types of driver assistance technology in modern cars. Safety technology used to be focused on reducing the severity of injuries in a crash – seatbelts and airbags, for example – but that focus has changed. Now technology often aims to prevent the crash from occuring in the first place.
An example of this is a blind spot monitoring system, which uses a sensor system to tell the driver if there’s a car to the side or behind them, where they may not have seen it. Another example is an automatic braking system that monitors the traffic ahead of the vehicle. It can sense a slowdown before a human driver perceives it and begins to apply the brakes, preventing a rear-end accident.
Wouldn’t this make people better drivers?
In some ways, this does make people better at driving. Someone may be distracted and not see the cars ahead of them slow down. They never would’ve applied the brakes in time, but the sensor system will automatically do this for them.
The issue is that people are beginning to rely on this type of technology. Distracted driving is highly dangerous, but a driver in a modern car may think that it’s safe enough for them. This is often a problem with semi-autonomous cars, such as Teslas. People will put too much faith in the autopilot system, believing that it removes all responsibility from them as a driver, and then get into an accident when the system isn’t flawless.
The thing to remember is that the driver is still responsible for an accident, even if they were relying on technology. If you’ve been injured by someone else’s negligence, you need to know how to seek financial compensation.