Top 10 safety features that should be standard all new cars

Some car companies have been discreetly deleting safety features due to the recent semiconductor shortage. Here is our Top 10 list of advanced safety tech that should be standard on every new car.

Not long ago airbags and anti-skid brakes were optional on new motor vehicles, now they’re considered the bare minimum.

The safety bar has been raised over the past decade, but some well-known car brands – and popular new vehicles – are still dragging their feet on the basics. 

Here is our Top 10 list of safety technology that ought to be standard on every new car – beyond a full complement of airbags, stability and anti-skid control, and autonomous emergency braking systems standard on most models today.

Blind-spot warning

Sensors behind the corners of the rear bumper can detect adjacent traffic and flash a warning symbol in the side mirrors if you’re about to change lanes and cut off a car, truck, or motorcycle hidden in your blind spot.

This is one of the most useful and most effective safety systems available today and yet, unfortunately, some car companies choose to make it exclusive to dearer models. It ought to be standard on every model grade.

If ute specialist Isuzu can find a way to fit this technology as standard on even its cheapest and most basic $29,990 model, then why on earth is it an option on some family, fleet and luxury cars – including some brands that supposedly built their reputation on safety?

There is quite frankly no excuse for the absence of this technology on new cars today.

Rear cross-traffic alert 

The same sensors behind the corners of the rear bumper also used for blind-spot warning when on the move, can also detect passing cars, bikes, shopping trolleys, pedestrians and inattentive children.

The system usually alerts drivers with a beep and/or a warning on the dash, rear camera display or side mirrors.

As with blind-spot warning, this is one of the most useful and most effective safety systems available today and yet, unfortunately, some car companies choose to make it exclusive to dearer models. It ought to be standard on every model grade.

Door-exit warning

Yet another use for the sensors hidden behind the corners of the rear bumper is a door exit warning. If you’re about to open the door on a passing cyclist or car the system will alert the driver with a beep or flashing lights in the side mirror.

Our earlier comments apply. This is one of the most useful and most effective safety systems available today and yet, unfortunately, some car companies choose to make it exclusive to dearer models. It ought to be standard on every model grade.

Speed sign recognition

Early speed sign recognition systems were based on navigation maps which could quickly become outdated. The latest technology uses tiny cameras in the windscreen to constantly scan the road ahead.

Depending on how well the cameras are calibrated (to varies from brand to brand) they can detect posted reflective signs, digital and overhead speed signs, work zone signs, and school zone signs.

Unfortunately, they also detect the 40km/h warning signs on the back of buses, however we’d rather live with these occasional false positive readings than miss a sudden speed zone change.

After driving a car equipped with the technology – and then switching to one without – you quickly miss it.

Tyre pressure monitors

Individual tyre pressure monitors are mandated in the US and other overseas markets, so it’s frustrating that some car makers remove this handy technology on cars made for Australia. 

Type pressure monitors are critical to road safety because sudden deflating could cause a high speed crash.

With tyre pressure monitors, drivers are alerted immediately to a loss of air pressure – and also show how much air pressure is in each tyre at any given time.

It means you can keep an eye on the tyre pressures before you need to top them up at the service station.

Forward car movement alert

An increasing number of new cars will alert drivers if the vehicle ahead of them has moved after you’ve been stopped in traffic.

Cars with this technology emit a subtle chime inside the cabin and display a warning in the instrument cluster to advise the driver it’s time to get a move-on and stop being distracted.

This technology hopefully eases traffic congestion and also means drivers are less inclined to dangerously over-react once they realise the traffic moved on ages ago.

Digital speed displays

With the strictest speed enforcement in the world, it’s only fair Australian motorists should have access to a digital speed display in their instrument cluster rather than relying solely on the vagueness of an analogue needle and dial.

Rear seatbelt reminders

Although rear seatbelt reminders are increasingly standard on new cars – because they are part of the criteria for a five-star safety score – the next step is technology that also reminds drivers to check the back seats when the ignition is turned off.

Tragically, there have been instances where a young sleeping child has been left in the car by an unwitting parent who forgot they were there, with fatal consequences.  

Automatic or dusk-sensing headlights

Do you wonder why so many cars drive around at night with their headlights switched off? Answer: it’s not because of their daytime running lights (though that gives other motorists a chance when the main beam headlights are switched off).

The reason is simple: the dashboard instruments on old-school cars were linked to the headlights. When the instruments were dark the headlights were switched off. It was genius in its simplicity.

Unfortunatelty, most modern cars have backlit and/or digital instrument displays which are illuminated whether the headlights are switched on or not.

Most drivers don’t know they need to look for the telltale headlight symbol to check if their car’s headlights are on.

Which is why we have ended up with countless cars driving around at night with their headlights switched off.

Canada has the right idea. It is trying to mandate a regulation for car companies that vehicle instruments cannot be illuminated unless the headlights are on. It sounds simple enough, but such a simple request could be a coding nightmare for car makers.

Perhaps the idea should go global, then every car maker would do and we would all benefit from this simple solution.

In the meantime, automatic or “dusk sensing” headlights come on as soon as it gets dark (or when you drive through a tunnel), as long as the headlight switch is in the ‘automatic’ position.

LED headlights

With LED headlight technology becoming more affordable, it’s time to say goodbye to old-school halogen headlights.

Car companies use halogen headlights as a way to encourage buyers from the base models and up into more expensive models. 

But we reckon it’s time to democratise LED headlights and let everyone see the light, no matter what their budget. Especially given Australia’s vast remote road network.

For examples of truly appalling halogen headlights, please see the base model Hyundai i30, Hyundai Staria Load van, Toyota Hiace van and Isuzu D-Max. 

In fairness, the bi-LED headlights in the new Isuzu D-Max (and Isuzu MU-X SUV twin)are spectacular but the halogens are woeful.

Footnote: Lane-keeping systems

Lane-keeping – or lane-tracing systems – are increasingly standard on new cars but, as previously reported, their effectiveness varies greatly and some are borderline dangerous because they have been so poorly calibrated.

We are in favour of lane-keeping systems that have been properly integrated and don’t attempt to swerve the car off the road by detecting false positives.

Until the industry gets better at property integrating lane-keeping systems – and until safety bodies such as ANCAP get better at measuring their effectiveness, their smoothness and accuracy – we are lukewarm on this technology.

As it stands, many lane-keeping systems are so poorly calibrated they are better off being disabled – which is the opposite of what safety bodies like ANCAP were hoping to achieve.

Time to pump the brakes on flawed lane-keeping technology until it is reliable enough to not jump at shadows or slam the brakes because it has mistaken a metal guard-rail for a vehicle.

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