Getting active in safety

Engineers are developing technology that can help control vehicles to avoid accidents, but implementation for some features will come sooner than others.

The push to reduce injuries that sparked huge advances in passive safety technologies in the recent past is now shifting to active safety techniques. Instead of responding to imminent accidents, vehicles in the not-too-distant future will be taking action to prevent collisions and rollovers.

Developers are looking at a variety of techniques that use electronic stability control (ESC), adaptive cruise control (ACC), intelligent braking, and other systems to take action and prevent accidents. While there will continue to be improvements, most observers feel that there is not a lot more that can be done to make major enhancements to passive safety equipment.