You Need New Brakes
Automobile technology shifts and changes from one day to the next. Despite all the recent advancements in the world of car safety, there are still a lot of people out there driving vehicles without the newest in brake technology. Read more here to find out why the NHTSA thinks you need new brakes.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has a list of recommended safety measures that all car designers must consider in the creation and testing of their vehicles. As of Thursday, the NHTSA took notice of the awesome advancements that have been made in the braking technology of newer cars and added crash imminent braking and dynamic brake support to their New Car Assessment Program.
While these technologies have been available for a little while now, it is usually only a safety feature offered in the higher end vehicles. As the average person is not very often in the market to buy a high end vehicle, the NHTSA decided to recommend that these new brake technologies be included in all new cars, and not just the ones that cost an arm and a leg. This was done with the hope that safety features like this would be included in more affordable cars and would then encourage consumers to buy safer vehicles.
Crash imminent braking, as its name suggests, uses sensors in the car to determine when a car is about to get into an accident. It then deploys the brakes if the driver has not already, to try and minimize the impact of the crash. Dynamic brake support steps in as a part of this system. Studies showed that often, when cars get into a crash, many drivers either didn’t have the chance to apply the brakes, or did not apply them fully. Brake support would collaborate with the crash imminent braking to make sure that if the brakes were fully, and not just partially, applied prior to a crash to minimize the impact.
It won’t be long until the NHTSA makes these type of technologies more of a mandate than a recommendation, but for now we can be happy that someone is looking out for the everyday average joe.
