Let Car Safety Technology Help You Have a Safe & Relaxed Summer

“This post is sponsored by the ‘My Car Does What’ safety campaign. All content and opinions are my own.”

“Remember those epic summer road trips in the back of the family minivan or station wagon? What about all the high-tech gadgets everyone got to play with to make time pass a little faster?”

Let Car Safety Technology Help You Have a Safe & Relaxed Summer

Oh that’s right, there were none! Prior to the 1970s car safety and technology was pretty much non-existent. In fact, seatbelt usage and the widespread installation of airbags in new vehicles didn’t become a norm until nearly the 1980s. The story is much different nowadays. Airbags are now standard, and so are many other basic forms of safety in every vehicle sold in the United States and across the world. That being said, a technological and safety revolution is currently happening, with many elaborate systems being born, implanted and perfected in a short amount of time.

Out of the many cutting-edge safety technologies in vehicles today, there’s one that stands out to me for a variety of reasons. Mainly because it’s, well—safe, but also because it’s cool, futuristic and it allows the driver to relax and enjoy the open road juts a bit more. I’m talking about “Adaptive Cruise Control” also known as smart or intelligent cruise control.

Keeping Your Family Safe While Giving you a Break

We travel a lot, and the majority of our traveling is done by car and with the entire family. This job also allows us to drive the newest vehicles on the market with the latest technology available, which is why I want to share with you how adaptive cruise control not only keeps us safe, but also makes our road trips more enjoyable.

How many times have you been at the wheel of your car, the traffic’s cleared up, and you decide it’s time to turn on cruise control and relax behind the wheel, only to have another driver ruin it for you? It seems that as soon as you touch that button, someone passes you on the wrong side of the road, gets next to you, cuts you off, or does something that forces you to either modify your speed via the cruise control buttons or even turn the whole thing off. I have to admit I’ve thrown many tantrums because of this. Just ask Missi!

If you can identify with the above, then you’ll love adaptive cruise control. Besides helping you keep your sanity, adaptive cruise control will help you drive safer (and keep your family safer) by utilizing its radar, camera or laser to keep a constant desired speed, keep a safe distance between you and the car in front, adjust your speed according to the vehicle in front of you, and lastly, even brake for you if necessary (on some vehicles).

How Does it Work?

There are different kinds of adaptive cruise control, but below you’ll see two videos of two different kinds of adaptive cruise control. One that works via laser on the 2015 Kia Sedona, and one that works via camera on the 2016 Honda Pilot with Honda Sensing package. The Honda Pilot will also utilize other systems to keep you from drifting out of your lane by actually steering for you.

Keeping you Safe

Rear-end collisions are the most common type of crashes on the road, and adaptive cruise control can lower those chances by acting as a fail-safe or system that forces you to keep a safe gap between vehicles, as well as warn you and even brake for you if necessary. This is something that becomes more and more important given the many distractions found in our vehicles nowadays.

Let’s get Social!

Do you have a story to share with us about how modern car technology helped keep you from danger? What’s your favorite safety technology in your car? Don’t forget to share with us how modern technology helps you keep your family safer on the road this summer using the #MyCarDoesWhat4Me on social media!