The federal government is challenging the auto industry to produce vehicles that use high technology to help drivers avoid accidents. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said that more than three-fourths of all accidents are due to driver error. Secretary of Transportation Rodney Slater said that better technology would dramatically reduce that number.
Systems such as intelligent cruise control, crash-avoidance systems, night-vision enhancement and others are already available on high-end vehicles. Slater set a goal of 10 years for the auto industry to install the technology in at least 10 percent of all passenger cars and 25 percent of commercial vehicles.
Toyota, Ford, Mercedes and Jaguar now offer “adaptive cruise control” on some vehicles, slowing or speeding the car to maintain a safe distance from vehicles in variable highway traffic.
General Motors offers Night Vision as an option on Cadillac DeVilles that uses infrared imaging to present the driver with an image of objects that are hidden by darkness or the glare of oncoming headlights.
Other technologies use radar to detect stationary objects hidden by fog, rain, or darkness; or to center the car in its lane automatically.
Finally, Slater announced that the Department of Transportation (DOT) and GM are working on ways to link global positioning systems with emergency services, speeding the ability of those services to locate a crash site.