Top 5 Car Safety Features You Might Not Know It Existed

There are some lesser known safety features out there that are keeping you safe without you knowing about it. Here are top 5 car safety features you probably did not know.

Brake Shift Interlock

This system is seen in the automatic gearbox version of the car where it prevents the car from going into gear without the brake being applied. This is designed to prevent the car being rolled away when the gear selector is knocked out of place unintentionally.

Gearbox Locked In Park Mode if Brake Light Burns Out

As you are aware, the red brake light is the most basic safety feature of the car and helps the driver behind you understand if you are going to come to a standstill. Hence, if you have parked your car and the brake light switch or the fuse is not working, the gearbox will lock in park mode to prevent you from driving.

Models such as Nissan Pathfinder and Altima use this safety feature and there should be a override button you can use to unlock the park mode and drive the car to your service centre.

Mercedes Pre-Safe Sound

In collision where your car gets T-boned, there is a lot of pressure changes happen in the cabin which could damage your ear. The new Mercedes-Benz E-Class has a technology called PRE-SAFE Sound which protects your ear in case of this scenario.

The technology detects when an accident is imminent, and then the stereo sends a "short interference signal" which is aloud tone and just before the collision to trigger the ear's reflex, which causes the muscle in your ear to contract. This helps your ear to mute itself against the high-pressure sounds of crash and airbag to expand.

Ford F-150 Wheel Blockers

Ford's new F-150 have high-strength steel bars in front and behind the wheel well to strengthen the wheel well in the event of a small overlap accident. So, if the wheel well is stronger it ultimately protects the passengers.

Driver Drowsiness Detector

The Driver Drowsiness Detector can tell when the driveris slowly dozing off or getting too tired to drive. It detects signs that driver might be sleeping and takes measures to wake them up or suggest they take a break from driving.

This feature monitors a few main aspects to decide if the drivers are alert or not. This could be steering pattern, drifting out of lanes, also keep tab on driver's eye/ face movements. Different manufacturers have their own systems and the specifics will differ. Nissan calls it Driver Attention Alert, Volkswagen calls it Fatigue Detection system, and Mercedes-Benz refers to it as Attention Assist.

The above car safety features are yet to be seen in some of the mass market cars in India; however, with safety standard norms being increasingly strengthened by the government, most of the unknown safety features will ultimately make it to the cars in India in the future.