With the advancement of technology, modern vehicles now boast an extensive range of car safety features that help you to drive safely and make your life much easier. While accidents aren’t something you always have control over, having the best safety features in your car can help you avoid or at least minimise the injury to you and your loved ones.
In this article, we talk about the 10 best safety features you should look for in a new car, and how they can keep you safe on the road and potentially save your life.
What Makes a Car Safe?
When we talk about safety features, most of us will automatically jump to seatbelts and airbags. Your car is actually made up of a combination of structural integrity, passive safety features and safety assist technology to keep you safe.
- Structural Integrity: The structural integrity is the build of your car, and its strength to withstand and channel the impact of a crash away from passengers inside the vehicle.
- Passive Safety Features: Passive safety features are those that come built-in with the car and automatically activate if required. These are typically the ones you are most familiar with like your airbags, brake decoupling mechanisms and your seat belts. They are there to minimise the injury and save your life when an accident occurs.
- Safety Assist Technology: Safety assist technology such as blind-spot monitoring (BSM), autonomous emergency braking (AEB), hill hold control, automatic headlights and adaptive cruise control are there to assist the driver in avoiding or reducing the severity of an accident. These features usually have warning alarms or alter the car’s performance automatically or semi-automatically when it detects the potential for an accident.
What are the Best Safety Features To Have in a New Car?
1. Seatbelts
Seatbelts are, without a doubt, an absolute lifesaver! The tension they hold prevents you from flying out of your seat and through your windscreen in the event of an accident, and protects you against the full force of your front airbags. You and all your passengers are required, by law, to have seatbelts on and car seats secured using the seatbelt and anchorages while your car is moving.
It’s very handy to have a reminder warning system in your car that alerts you if you or your passengers have forgotten to buckle up.
If you have children in the car, you can find more information about the right car seat for them, here.
2. Airbags
Airbags are inflatable cushions that protect you from the impact of an accident, and can help reduce the damage and pain you would experience. Airbags deploy when the sensor detects that a severe enough impact has occurred, triggering a large amount of gas to inflate the airbag quickly.
For the best protection it is a good idea to drive a car that has at least six airbags, including:
- Front – the ones that cover the steering wheel and fill the dash area in front of the passenger when you have a front-on collision,
- Side – those that inflate between you and the door when a side impact occurs,
- Curtain – those that drop down from the inside of the roof and over the windows.
3. Electronic Stability Control and Traction Control
Electronic Stability Control is designed to stop you skidding and keep your car safe and stable on the road. ESC adjusts the individual brakes at each wheel when it senses the car losing grip on the road. Also called Electronic Stability Programme (ESP), Dynamic Stability Control (DSC), Vehicle Dynamic Control (VDC), or Vehicle Stability Assist (VSA), this safety feature helps prevent your vehicle from losing traction with the road and sliding out, especially in wet weather conditions.
Traction control is there to maintain grip at the driven wheels - front-, rear- or all-wheel drive. It helps reduce wheel spin by gauging the speed each wheel is moving at, and either slowing it down or speeding it up to maintain traction with the road.
4. ABS (Anti-lock Braking System)
ABS is really handy when you brake suddenly in low-grip situations as it prevents the wheels locking up. This means you have the ability to still steer or control your car to a safe controlled stop while the braking force on each wheel is automatically adjusted.
5. Reversing Camera & Parking Sensors
A reverse camera is one of the most useful safety features when it comes to parking and reversing out of tight spots. You can check your rear and blind spots to confirm that it’s safe to move your vehicle and use it to navigate kerbs, car parking buildings and driveways.
The addition of parking sensors either in your front, rear or both bumpers detects any obstacles in the path of your car and sounds out a ‘beeping’ noise that gets faster the nearer you are to the obstacle. This is useful if you are getting too close to the fence on one side or a parked car.
6. Automatic Headlamps
While these safety features may not seem flashy, high beam assist, auto levelling and auto light-sensing headlights are super practical must haves.
It’s so easy to forget when you are driving along at night on the open road to dip your lights for oncoming traffic. That’s where high beam assist available in the Suzuki Swift comes in. At a minimum speed it automatically switches the headlamps between high and low beam depending on the presence of other vehicles and the lighting environment.
When you’re driving up hills or carrying heavy weight in the back of the vehicle, auto levelling headlights adjust the height of the beam so it is always pointing towards the road to maximise your visibility and not to blind on-coming traffic. While auto light-sensing headlights turn on or off based on how bright or dark the light is outside, which is perfect for turning the lights on in the evening when it starts to become gloomy.
7. Forward Collision Warning and Automatic Emergency Braking
It only takes a second for traffic to bunch up and for the car in front to brake suddenly. With a forward collision warning system like Suzuki’s Dual Sensor Brake Support, you’ll be alerted when it detects an impending collision so that you have more time to react and avoid an incident. If you fail to react in time, the automatic emergency braking feature will kick in, reducing the speed of the car as quickly as it can.
8. Blind Spot Monitor
Having the blind spot monitor feature is useful when it comes to merging and switching lanes on the motorway. When you indicate, you’ll hear an audio warning and see a visual cue in your side mirror, letting you know there is a car in your blind spot and reducing the risk of driving into another car.
9. Lane Departure Warning and Lane Weaving Alert
For roads that are marked on both sides, the lane departure warning system lets you know if you are straying out of your lane by flashing a visual warning on your dash and vibrating the steering wheel.
If you get tired and the car detects you’re ‘wandering’ from the road, the lane weaving alert system sends out audio and visual alerts so you can correct it, and continue on your travels without posing a danger to other road users.
10. Rear Cross Traffic Alert
Another handy one when navigating busy parking buildings or supermarkets, the rear cross traffic alert uses the rear mounted side radar sensors, like those in the Suzuki Vitara to safely navigate out of parking spaces when your vision is obstructed by cars on either side. If a car is approaching it triggers an audio and visual alert so you can wait until it passes.
With these 10 best safety features, you’ll find comfort in knowing your car has the right systems to keep you, and those in the car with you safe in the event of an accident. If you’re looking to buy a new car and not sure what else you should know, download our Complete Guide to Buying a New Car today!
