The Drive for Smarter, Safer Cars

ByABC News
April 8, 2004, 10:44 AM

April 13 -- Pop into any new car dealership today and it's easy to see how far the automobile has progressed since the first horseless carriages appeared over 100 years ago.

Sleeker chassis built with strong yet lightweight materials; smaller and efficient engines that reliably deliver high performance; and "creature comforts" such as air conditioning and heated seats are just some of the obvious differences from the "Tin Lizzies" of yester-century.

But as much as the outward appearance and features may have changed in automobiles, the latest evolutionary steps are more about brains that beauty. Consider what some automakers have in store for the near future.

Some car companies are working to develop systems that literally watch the driver's eyes. If it detects a lack of eyelid blinks, the system may deduce it has a sleepy driver behind the wheel and shake the steering wheel to get the driver's attention.

Within a few years, car makers such as Audi and Volvo will offer in-vehicle systems that can automatically determine if the car is veering out of a road lane and alert the driver or possibly make its own slight course corrections.

Also within that time frame, more cars could become equipped with radar- or camera-based systems that will detect and warn drivers of nearby objects. And if a driver doesn't take the proper avoidance steps, the car may take "pre-collision" action applying the brakes, tightening occupants' seatbelts, rolling up windows and locking the doors.

Already, cars are stuffed with some of the basic electronic smarts from computer chips that autonomously monitor and adjust mechanical performance to sensors that control when and how an airbag deploys during a collision.

But the push to these smarter, more "active" systems, some say, is needed to help make cars even safer especially as drivers become seemingly more distracted while behind the wheel.

"Passive safety system seatbelts and airbags have done a fantastic job over the last 40 years," says Richard Lind, director of advanced engineering of the electronics division of Delco, a leading vehicle systems maker in Kokomo, Ind. "But in the last 10 years or so, the [safety] benefits have stabilized."