Advances in new technology are making cars safer than ever before, but not all new vehicles come with the latest lifesaving features.
Forward collision warning and automatic braking can prevent accidents before they happen, but less than half of all new cars have the systems as standard equipment.
Consumer Reports believes the new safety systems should be made available in more new models.
“We think these technologies are so important that they factor into our ratings,” said Consumer Reports Auto Editor Jeff Plungis. “We'd like more vehicles to have these safety features as standard equipment and unfortunately the roll out has been slow.”
It’s believed that nine out of every ten serious crashes are linked to driver error. Safety features like forward collision warning and automatic emergency braking are proven to help avoid them, but these systems are only standard in 44-per cent of 2019 model cars.
Unfortunately, slow-to-market safety technology is all too common. Consider seat belts, which Consumer Reports tested in 1956. It took more than 10 years for the government to require them on all cars.
Since 1960, it's estimated more than 300,000 lives have been saved by seat belts.
Even today, seat belt technology has evolved to make passengers safer.
“Two parts of the seatbelt that really work during a crash are the pretensioner and the limiter,” said Plungis. “The pretensioner pulls the belt tight during the crash so you don't fly forward and the load limiter lets out a little bit of slack as that's happening so that as you're flying into the seatbelt you don't get hurt by the belt.”
Some cars now even come with inflatable seat belts.
“All this great technology isn't standard on all cars and isn't always available in the back seat. We need to find ways to save lives. It shouldn't be a luxury option" said Plungis.
Safety advocates hope that more manufacturers will begin including forward collision warning and emergency braking systems as standard equipment on new cars.
In the future, cars could get even safer by communicating with each other to avoid crashes. Self-driving cars may also reduce or even eliminate accidents, but vehicles that completely drive themselves are still years or even decades away.
