This post came from an article that I read on the design of new cars and the importance of safety in new designs. Today, most luxury car manufacturers,consider that safety is the most important feature, but of course, it has to be embedded in a cool design in order for people to buy it.
According to this article, cars can be even safer than they are now. BMW and Mercedes-Benz are the leaders in innovative safety. One example, is the Mercedes-Benz ESF concept car which is a platform to display advanced ideas in safety. Here are some of the features that both companies are planning to include that I though were pretty cool...
- Both inside and outside airbags to reduce impact
- A "braking bag" under the car. When sensors detect an unavoidable crash about to occur, the bag inflates, pushing a metal plate down onto the road surface, helping to slow the car and reduce impact.
- BMW has a feature that uses infrared night vision to recognize human shapes on or near the road and produce an image of them on a screen inside the car.
- Mercedes is working on a system that shines light directly on pedestrians or animals standing outside the headlight beams.
There are several other safety features that car manufacturers are planning to include in their future models. These were just some that I found and thought were cool...I think that the coolest thing about these companies is that they are making the prettiest cars while being the safest. I think that designing to be the best in both areas is really hard and that they are doing a very job.
