Here at Telematics.com, one of our big interests is car safety. Telematics themselves can bring about a lot of improvements in that respect, giving you warnings about your own dangerous driving habits (don’t worry, we all have them!) but until we get fully automated cars that can take us from A too B without incident, new safety measures in vehicles are always welcome. That’s why we’re quite excited by some of the new technology being bundled with Chevrolet’s upcoming 2015 line up.
Not all of it is brand new, but it’s always nice to see well tried and tested safety hardware show up, as it’s that familiarity that really aids safety. For starters, there’s a rear vision camera, which not only helps parking, but prevents you accidentally backing over something or (heaven forbid) someone. All 2015 versions of Chevrolet’s vehicles will come equipped with a rear facing camera that sends an HD video feed right to the in-dash display, giving you a great view of what’s behind you at all times.
For when that rear-facing camera can’t give you an idea about what’s behind or to the sides of you however, perhaps due to much bigger cars blocking yours or its line of sight, build in radar sensors in the sides and rear of the car will let you know if a vehicle is coming from any particular direction and will warn you, especially if it’s travelling too fast.
Those side sensors can also be used to check your blind spots. Changing lanes on a motorway for example, you can now have the radar do a quick scan to make sure you aren’t about to pull out in-front of someone who just happens to be in your blind spot. Of course if you configure your mirrors correctly, you shouldn’t need this feature, but it’s always good to have another safety measure in place just in-case.
All of this would be a little redundant if you weren’t protected at the front though and that’s where the forward collision alert and automated braking come in to play. If you’re approaching a static or much slower vehicle or object at a speed that could send you right into the back of it, the collision alert will let you know if you’re about to have an accident. Listen to it, it knows what it’s talking about thanks to front-facing radar.
While the alert may only give you a short time to react, those seconds could make the difference between a nasty accident and just a little bump. However, if you don’t quite get there in time, the automatic brakes will kick in, hopefully preventing any serious injuries.
To make motorway driving that bit safer and about as close to autonomous as we can get right now, there’s also going to be adaptive cruise control and lane assist technology in new Chevy vehicles, meaning that you won’t ever drift out of your lane without being told about it. Also, if you happen to be approaching someone in the lane ahead of you because you’re going faster than they are, the cruise control system will slow you down to a more comparable speed.
All in all, it sounds like Chevy’s new 2015 vehicles are going to be that bit safer than the current generation, which is what we like to see. It’s especially great to see all of this come as standard and not as some sort of costly aftermarket option.
[Thanks ChipChick]
