Most Important Car Safety Features

Car Safety Features: The primary concern of the majority of prospective purchasers of new vehicles is the safety of their forthcoming vehicle. This can be most easily comprehended by examining the safety rating of a specific vehicle. In the Indian market, the Global NCAP is the primary organization responsible for assigning this rating.The Global NCAP or GNCAP evaluates automobiles that are sold in the Indian market. It acquires vehicles through a variety of channels, subjecting them to two distinct types of accident tests (frontal offset and side impact), and subsequently assigning them a rating. The ratings are distinct for adult and juvenile occupants. If you would like to know more about the kind of testing that GNCAP conducts before giving out a safety rating, take a look at this in-depth explanation.It is crucial to consider two components when discussing vehicular safety: passive and active safety features. Passive safety features are designed to safeguard the occupants from the impact of an accident, while active safety features operate in real-time to prevent accidents.Initially, we will examine the active safety features that are indispensable in the present day.

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1. Active Safety Features

In India, all vehicles are equipped with an electronic brake-force distribution (EBD) and an anti-lock braking system (ABS). ABS prevents the wheels from seizing up when the brakes are applied over low-friction surfaces or during cornering. Lock ups can occur for numerous reasons ranging from but not limited to water, oil, or debris being present on the road, to panic braking. The ABS releases and then re-engages brakes, as soon as it comes to know that a particular wheel is about to lock up. When ABS is activated, the pulsations of the ABS unit can be felt, and you will sense them in the brake pedal. As the ABS prevents the wheel from closing up, you retain steering control over the vehicle, allowing you to change direction without sliding. If your wheels close up, not only will you be braking in-efficiently, but you will also lose control over a car’s direction, as a locked-up wheel cannot grasp the road surface to change direction.EBD takes over when the time arrives to re-engage the brakes. It determines how much braking pressure each tyre can take, and consequently applies that much braking force to each individual tire. This enables each wheel to decelerate in the most efficient manner possible. One thing to note here is that EBD is instrumental, because the amount of braking force each wheel can manage depends on various factors such as the equilibrium of the car and the amount of tread present on the wheels, among other things.In the actual world, the ABS and EBD function harmoniously and they only turn on when you brake hard and require braking assistance to retain control of the car.

2. Electronic Stability Control (ESC)

Electronic Stability Control or ESC is becoming more common in vehicles in India, and is rapidly becoming a standard feature on compact SUVs. Have you heard of terms like traction control or Vehicle Stability Management? These are all features that lie under the purview of ESC. Essentially, ESC prevents a vehicle from rotating its tyres or skidding over low-friction surfaces. It also helps the vehicle maintain its course when traveling through a corner. The ESC system in the car accumulates information through multiple sensors. These are inserted in the rims and steering wheel. You also have sensors which measure the longitudinal and lateral rotation of a vehicle. All of this data is usually re-calculated around 100 times a second, meaning that the system can catch up on the slightest of alterations.To detect wheel spin, the system simply compares the individual speed of a wheel to the actual speed of the vehicle, and if the velocities do not match, it reduces the engine power flowing to that wheel. Some systems also use braking force to reduce wheel-speed in such scenarios, but ultimately, the effect is the same. In case a vehicle is not able to maintain its line through a corner and starts to skid off course, the ESC once again steps in to decelerate individual wheels and assist the car maintain its course. The system applies braking force to the inside axles during a corner to bring a vehicle back in alignment. It can also limit power to the outside wheels in this case, as they teeter on the verge of grip. ESC is one of the most effective safety systems onboard a car that helps prevent complete loss of control.

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3. Tyre Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS)

TPMS or Tyre Pressure Monitoring System is another instrumental active safety feature that has more benefits than one. It measures the air pressure inside your tyres in real time, and alerts you in case the pressure decreases below or goes above the recommended level. The slightest variations in pressure can have adverse effects on how a car performs when you apply the brakes or go around a corner. For example, under-inflated tyres will deform during deceleration and cornering, and also have the potential to fall off the wheel. Similarly, over-inflated tyres will require more distance to come to a halt and their cornering traction will also be compromised. While these are pieces that can help prevent an accident, maintaining adequate tyre pressure will also enable you to extract the maximum life from your tyres.

Most Important Car Safety Features

4. Advanced Driving Assistance Systems (ADAS)

ADAS or Advanced Driving Assistance Systems is a relatively novel feature when it comes to the Indian market. While it is made up of a myriad of features, it’s the AEB (Auto Emergency Braking) and LKA (Lane Keep Assist) that are the most essential. The ADAS system uses radars and cameras to detect its surroundings and act accordingly. AEB, as the name suggests, will autonomously apply the brakes if the system detects that a collision is imminent. At moderate velocities, this system has the potential to completely avoid an accident. At higher velocities, the vehicle might not come to a full halt, but the AEB will still reduce the severity of an accident.LKA on the other hand maintains you in your domain. For this feature to function, it is essential that road markings are clear and present on the road you are driving on. Therefore, it won’t function in some conditions, but when it does work (for example on the highway), it maintains you centered in your lane. If it detects that the vehicle is slipping out of its lane, it merely nudges the steering wheel in the opposing direction to maintain the vehicle in the lane. While ADAS is an aid that helps on highways, you should always bear in mind that the driver is the primary individual driving the vehicle. Therefore, even when ADAS is engaged, your undivided attention should be on the road. As for cars with ADAS in India, the Mahindra XUV700, MG Astor and Honda City e:HEV are some examples of mass-market cars.

5. Passive Safety Features

Passive safety features refers to features that reduce the possibility of injury and fatality when you get into an accident.Airbags enter into action milliseconds after an accident. The airbags deploy when the sensors in a vehicle detect impact force beyond a certain threshold. There is a small pyrotechnic charge inside the airbag unit that can inflate an airbag in a fraction of a second. How many airbags deploy depends on the number of occupants in a vehicle, the angle of the collision, and its severity. This also varies from carmaker to carmaker, but ultimately, if a vehicle is fully-loaded, then all airbags will deploy. In terms of mass-market vehicles, you can now get up to nine airbags aboard a vehicle. An example of this is the Skoda Octavia. The minimum mandate by the government is two, and it is contemplating increasing that number to six, and honestly in the case of airbags, the more the merrier. The airbag functions as a cushion between you and the hard structures of the passenger compartment. If you are not wearing your seat belt, and the airbag deploys, then the airbag can actually cause you injury as it inflates at an alarming speed.

6. Seat restraints

In the event of an accident, a seat belt is your primary defence against injury and keeps you restrained in your seat in the event of an accident. By keeping you restrained, the seatbelt prevents your body from hitting various sections of the vehicle or from being thrown out of your car. Seat belts also have additional built-in features like pretensioners and force limiters to increase the safety of the seat belt. Pretensioners function together with the airbag to tighten the seat belts and eliminate any slack to secure the occupant better. Force limiters prevent the seat belts from exerting too much pressure on the body and are designed to unwind should a preset burden be exceeded.There are also various varieties of seat belts. What you see in road vehicles is termed the three-point seat belt, and was pioneered by Volvo in1959. Essentially, a three-point seat belt helps distribute the impact across the body, and is superior at restraining a human being in their seat than a lap belt. There are also four-point and five-point seat belts that are technically better than a three-point seat belt, but they are primarily used in race cars as it takes a while to do up these seat belts, which is not optimal for road vehicles.

7. Impact Sensing Door Unlock

Lastly, the doors of most modern vehicles are electrically operated, and in the event of an accident, the battery might get disconnected, making it impossible to open the doors. This can become a problem in situations where you might need to hurriedly evacuate a crashed vehicle. To make sure that’s possible, most carmakers offer the Impact Sensing Door Unlock feature. As soon as the onboard computer detects a collision, it automatically unlocks the door. This enables people confined inside a car to rapidly get out of the vehicle, or rescuers to obtain fast access to the occupants inside.

Essential Car Safety Features Summary

When it comes to safety features in vehicles, the Indian government has moved rapidly in the last half a decade. It has made crucial safety equipment mandatory on all automobiles sold in India, and that has pushed carmakers to offer even more safety features. However, we believe that if you can spend to a certain extent, then all features we have covered in this list should be present in your next car, as they considerably increase your safety on the road. Not only that, the appropriate use of these safety features is also essential (like always wearing your seat belt so that the airbags can work effectively) to increase the effectiveness of the safety systems onboard.

FAQs

People also ask

There's no need to mandate six airbags in automobiles as almost all automakers already include them: Gadkari. The government declared in September 2022 that the deadline for requiring six airbags in a passenger automobile would henceforth be enforced starting on October 01, 2023, one year later than originally scheduled.

Which is better 2 airbags or 6 airbags?

Vehicle Size and Use: The requirement for six airbags may also depend on the size and kind of the vehicle. SUVs and other larger cars often have greater room and allow for more space between seats for passengers. More airbags can assist cover a larger area and offer better protection in certain situations.

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