Collision Avoidance

Some will try to stop you altogether, some will just try to make the best of a bad situation.

Lane departure warning and collision avoidance systems have largely been the province of upscale automakers or the range-topping trims in volume models, but that's beginning to change. Apparently, however, the National Transportation Safety Board feels that such safety features should not be the preserve of the well-to-do, however, suggesting that this technology should be made

Starting last fall, eight carmakers worked with the Department of Transportation on a study assessing drivers' acceptance of accident-avoidance technologies. The initial six-month program in the Connected Vehicle Safety Pilot Program put people on closed roads in cars that communicated wirelessly to issue warnings about lane changes, blind spots, forward collisions and other cars approaching intersections. Of the 688 participants, more than 90 percent wa

The fact is that small cars get into more accidents than large and mid-sized cars, and the fatality rates for small cars are about twice as high as their larger siblings. Yet it's the large – and usually expensive and luxurious – cars that get features like collision avoidance technology. That could change soon if TRW Automotive can get car makers to adopts its less expensive collision avoidance radar system.

Two new JDM Toyota safety technologies are likely to arrive on future Lexus models in the United States. The first is a system that uses a millimeter-wave radar to detect objects in the vehicle's path. When obstructions are noted, the driver is alerted by an indicator or a sound. If the pending collision is imminent, a pre-crash system activates the brakes, removes slack from the seats belts and then deploys the airbags.