Car Technology
In car technology has developed quicker this decade than any other. We can categorise this into 2 sections;
- Safety
- Convenience
From a safety point of view we can look at technology such as automatic windscreen wipers and automatic headlights. Convenient developments could be technology such as rear view parking cameras or wing mirrors that fold to the pavement to assist with parking your car
Here you can see on the headlight switch alongside the universal symbols for the headlights there is an auto setting. If the headlight switch is left on this setting then a light sensor will automatically put the headlights on when the sun begins to set and turn them off either when you stop your car or the sun rises.
Statistics show a decrease in the number of accidents from drivers forgetting to put their headlights on and from the introduction in 2012 of the Daytime Running Light (DLR).
The DLR is a front mounted set of lights on a car or lorry that are on whenever your headlights are not, generally during the day. These lights are particularly useful on sunny days when for example dark cars are in shadow as you are waiting to emerge from a junction.
Do you think about when you should use your headlights?
- Heavy rain
- Gray English winter days
- Mist
- Fog
Follow this link to the AA website where they also talk about automated driving and technologies https://www.theaa.com/driving-advice/safety/automatic-lights
For the convenience of driving you would have to look to Mercedes for the greatest developments. Other manufacturers create other ideas but these include;
- LED headlights which bend light around corners
- Infrared cameras to assist night time driving
- Automatic hill hold assist to make hill starts smoother
- Wing mirrors that automatically dip to the kerb when you reverse to assist
- Automatic city breaking in order to help prevent small bumps
- City steering to make the steering as light as possible when manoeuvring
- Service interval indicators
- Malfunction indicators
- Auto dip rearview and wing mirrors to prevent headlight dazzle from the car following
- Main beam headlights that when a car comes towards you is able to only dip the light enough not to affect the other road user giving you maximum light output
The list is endless!
Who is driving the car?
The most important thing to remember and to teach with all these new and improving technologies that you must not rely entirely on them. You as the driver must take responsibility for checking your lights are working and checking your tyres and looking behind you when reversing, fort example.
If you would like to learn more about your car or driving with these aids, follow this link to my Full Licence page https://www.firstdrivesouthwest.co.uk/full-license/