No more crashes? As the British International Motor Show opens next week, it's
worth noting that this could be a landmark year for safer driving. The
Department for Transport is spending it consulting with carmakers and
experts on funding and fostering a new armoury of high-tech design features
for between 2010 and 2019 - an era that the Government hopes will make “zero
accidents” a realistic aim. But meanwhile, the threats are growing, with
ever more people, more cars, and more potential collisions on the roads. So
what's in store for car safety? Here we reveal the potential lifesavers set
to change your motoring world in the next decade (but only if the Government
is brave enough, and if drivers are willing enough).
1. Car's eyes
Suppliers such as Siemens VDO are working on systems that read speed-limit and
one-way signs and warn the driver if he or she is breaking the law. Siemens'
system uses a camera mounted behind the interior rear-view mirror, aimed at
the road ahead.
Hitting the roads Early next year for speed-limit recognition; after
2010 for warning signs.
2. Help!
A system called eCall could summon emergency services in a crash. The system,
proposed as part of an EU initiative called eSafety, would automatically
alert the authorities, describe the vehicle's state (upside-down, for
example) and its last known GPS satellite-detected position. Developers hope
the system could cut response time by ten minutes on average, reducing
fatalities by 10 per cent.
Hitting the roads The European Commission expects eCall to be deployed
by 2011.
3. New crash tests
Current tests hit cars head-on using an aluminium block with a crushable
front, to represent the front of another car. But in the past ten years the
front ends of cars have become increasingly stiffer, so the crash-test cube
needs a stiffened front end to remain accurate, says Phil Glyn-Davies, the
crashworthiness engineering manager at Britain's Millbrook Proving Ground.
Hitting the roads Smashing into a prototype soon.
4. External airbags
Carmakers are working to build external airbags into the stiff structural
pillars on either side of the car, in order to save the lives of pedestrians
who get flung on to them in collisions. Hitting the roads Only if makers can
do this without making cars unacceptably ugly, or having pillars so thick
that they block the driver's view. Research shows that thick pillars may
already cause drivers to fail to see motorbikes at junctions.
5. Pollution
Manufacturers love to tell us that they are “greening” their cars. But this is
such a smokescreen that the Norwegian Government bans carmakers from making
eco claims in their adverts - because cars intrinsically can't be
planet-friendly. To make them less damaging, the European Union is proposing
to set makers an average maximum for their fleets of 130g of carbon per
kilometre by 2012. After that, legislators will aim for 50g/km.
6. Fuel cells
Fuel-cell motors are effectively a constantly replenished battery, using
hydrogen and oxygen to generate electricity, with water vapour as the only
exhaust. In 2000 several marques promised fuel-cell cars by 2004, but it
didn't happen, largely due to cost, weight and driver acceptance (they make
a farty noise rather than macho “vroom”). But in January Cadillac revealed
the Provoq (pictured above), a hydrogen fuel cell-powered concept car that
may be ready in five years.
Hitting the roads Possibly some time between 2010 and 2020.
7. Road-web
A government report published in May predicts that in 20 years the UK will
have a national inter-car network of “Intelligent Transport Systems”, where
vehicle will speak unto vehicle. Cars' electronic brake lights will
instantly radio- transmit warnings to following cars of hard braking. Cars
will be traffic sensors, automatically warning others if traffic is
stationary and if road conditions are poor due to potholes or other
imperfections.
The American car-safety device maker, Delphi, says that while all the building
blocks exist for creating such networks, the initial costs are a big
obstacle. Hitting the roads Predictions range between 20 years' time and
never. But Delphi sees the system as part of long-term progress towards a
world of automated highways.
8. Sat-nanny
By combining sat-nav with your car's electronic engine-management brain, it
would be relatively simple to create a device that limited your car's
maximum speed to the legal limit of whichever road you were driving on. Why
don't we have this? It's consumer freedom - even though that freedom
realistically means getting stuck behind slower cars, getting busted for
speeding, or getting involved in accidents.
Hitting the roads The technology is all there. The political will is
markedly absent.
9. Driver spies
A black box that detects dangerous driving, records it and cautions the
driver, is going on trial in Staffordshire with 50 teenage drivers. The
American Safety Center system is being piloted by the county council to
enable parents to monitor their teens' driving. A dashboard-mounted display,
with green, red and yellow alert lights, measures unsafe moves such as
speeding and sharp braking, and sends the data to a database that parents
can access. The phone company T-Mobile has tested the device in 250 of its
vehicles. It says that it has saved £417,000 in crash damage and 3 per cent
in fuel costs in 12 months. To forestall employee fears, a function to
identify individual drivers is switched off. That, however, might change.
Hitting the roads Imagine the Big Brother backlash if a mandatory
system were proposed.
10. Self-steering
Collision-avoidance systems that intervene when a crash seems inevitable are
about to be fitted to vehicles driven in Britain. A system created by Volvo,
for example, is active at speeds up to 20mph. It uses laser radar in the top
of the windscreen that detects if the vehicle in front is at a standstill or
on a crash course. If a collision is imminent it applies the brakes and cuts
the throttle. Volvo claims that if the car is travelling below 10mph, it
should prevent the collision.
Hitting the roads The Volvo City Safety system will be standard on its
XC60, on sale from November.
11. Bumper bags
Most pedestrians killed or seriously injured in road accidents in the EU are
hit by cars. By firing dummy body parts at 25mph at the front of cars,
experts at Euro NCAP (National Car Assessment Programme) work to find out
better ways to design cars to reduce the toll. Cars launched in the past two
years have begun to sport front ends chamfered by 45 degrees, with lower
bumpers that reduce leg injuries. Pedestrian-friendliness can constrain
design style, tending to make cars look similar. Makers seek to compromise
in this area, so EU regulations have been diluted to temper the knock-on
effects on style and fuel consumption.
Hitting the roads Carmakers have agreed voluntarily to meet the next
generation of European front-end design standards by 2010, and these are
hoped to cut pedestrian injuries by 20 per cent.
12. Bouncing bonnet
hen a pedestrian lands on a car bonnet, the bonnet might be soft, but the
engine underneath definitely isn't. One answer is to build in more
cushioning space between bonnet and motor, but this can ruin cars' svelte
lines. So, instead, marques such as Jaguar are introducing active safety
systems: explosive devices that rapidly raise the bonnet in a crash, thus
giving the pedestrian a softer landing.
Hitting the roads Already on cars such as the Jaguar XK, Citroën C6 and
Honda Legend.
13. Car for life
If we really were to seek healthily sustainable personal transport, we would
buy cars for life. These would have a basic chassis on which parts, panels,
even engines could be swapped as they wore out or were superseded by more
efficient components. You could exchange aluminium bodies for different
shapes at dealers to meet your changing needs.
Hitting the roads Cars with interchangeable panels have been on the
cards for the past decade. But consumer desire seems non-existent. People
get bored with their existing car and want a whole new one. This keeps the
makers very happy.
14. Micro-family cars
Shrinking cars may prove a powerful health-promoter. Big 4X4s are often bought
in the belief that they give child occupants robust protection, but research
published in Pediatrics shows that the safety benefits are generally similar
to those of small vehicles. And 4x4s are bad news for health because they
make our streets feel scary. In a recent study into why children don't walk
to school more often, 40 per cent of parents cited traffic danger. If cars
are to shrink, safety may not be the cause: moves to boost cars' fuel
efficiency are getting technically harder. The only significant way forward
is to make cars lighter, and thus smaller. (That's if designers can get past
the fact that the occupants keep getting heavier and bigger.)
Hitting the roads It might depend on the fuel crisis.
