5 Gadgets That Will Keep You Safe on the Road

• written by Krist Duro
5 Gadgets That Will Keep You Safe on the Road

When you think about care safety – seat belts and air bags are the first things that come to mind. And with good reason to, the seat belts have been mandatory for 50 years and air bags have been around since the 70s. However, modern technology has gone far beyond this. Gadgets designed to keep you safe are much more proactive and therefore much more efficient. As the technology continues to develop human-machine interfaces are going to play an even bigger role.

Cross Traffic Alert

This useful gadget started as something that’s only available to luxury cars, but recently it’s become widely available. Radars are mounted on the rear fenders and connected to your dashboards. The alarm goes off when you’re on a collision course with something. This is especially important in parking lots, when the alarms would mean you should wait until the path is clear to get out. The improvements can obviously go further, for instance – automatic brakes instead of an alarm would make a significant difference and saved a lot of money.

Night vision

Collisions with pedestrians have become more frequent, recently. Texting and constantly using smartphones is probably to blame. Most of these collisions happen at night and unless technology finds a way to turn off everyone’s phones, cars are going to have to change. Thermal image cameras are able to spot larger objects from more than 160 meters away. After that, there are two levels of protection. The driver is being signaled through a dashboard and strong flashing lights are used to warn the pedestrian. Something similar could also work with a deer or other animals although lights might make the situation worse (automated horn is a better option).

An image showcasing the game described in this article.Cameras

You can put a camera on pretty much anything these days and most people do it to share their lives on social media. However, camera on your car can actually make you significantly safer. Strathfield car radios action camera is a relatively inexpensive, but still provides you with all the options you might need. Action cameras can record the accidents or any other dangerous event and provide you with the data you might need for insurance purposes. You can also use the footage to review your driving performance. On a lighter note, these cameras can be used to record and treasure interesting road trips.

Augmented reality

Augmented reality was popularized because of the Pokemon Go game, but the potential of this technology goes far beyond simple entertainment. For instance, augmented reality can be used to display detailed information about surroundings directly onto the dashboard. When there’s a car in front of you – the distance between you, speed and chance of collision could be displayed instantaneously and move on the dashboard as the car moves.  This way the drivers don’t have to take their eyes off the road at all.

Self-driving cars

All of these changes lead up to a single point. Machines are better at driving than humans. At one point driving will be completely automated. Google and Tesla have made their prototypes already and the market will probably make the technology move in that direction. It’s safer and less expensive that way, although the whole concept might raise some interesting moral dilemmas. Getting used to being driven around by robots is going to take some time, but the advantages, particularly related to safety are overwhelming.

High- tech gadgets are changing the way we drive. Cars are basically big computers at this point and that might seem strange, but it’s made driving a lot safer and less stressful. Hopefully, things are going to continue in that fashion in the future.

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