Backup cameras used to be a luxury on cars that you often had to spend extra money on higher trim levels to obtain. Still, they became so essential to driving safety that they are mandatory on all vehicles.
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As technology advances, our cars become more innovative and capable of helping us drive as safely as possible, and it stands to reason that the essential safety features should become standard rather than add-on features.
The Automatic Emergency Braking
To many drivers, automatic emergency braking can take a bit of getting used to as; we aren’t used to our cars being able to control the gas or brakes and certainly not slam on the brakes in case of emergency.
Automatic emergency braking is an active safety feature that has become increasingly popular in modern cars. Still, it isn’t yet a standard feature on every vehicle, meaning you have to see if the specific trim level you want for each vehicle offers.
Even the most attentive driver cannot compete with the speed at which the car’s sensors respond in case of a potential accident, potentially saving you from rear-ending the car in front of you.
The Blind-spot Monitoring
Blind-spot monitoring is another feature that takes some time to get used to, but once you’ve had a vehicle with this safety feature, it can be a bit stressful to go without it. Blind-spot monitoring allows drivers to confidently and safely change lanes by alerting us to vehicles or obstacles in our blind spot.
Blind spots are problematic for many older cars, including sports cars and convertibles, and blind-spot monitoring enhances the driving experience and makes the road safer for everyone overall.
How do Safety Features Become a Standard Requirement?
Several standard safety features are already standard among all newly manufactured vehicles, even if they weren’t always a requirement. This includes many basic safety features we often take for granted, such as seat belts and airbags, which aren’t as common or available on many older, classic cars.
These features were once add-ons to many cars and weren’t requirements for newly manufactured vehicles at some point. Still, car safety agencies and manufacturers agreed that these features were so essential to public and road safety that making them standard was essential and responsible.
So, as cars become even safer through technological advancements, the most important ones, such as automatic emergency braking and blind-spot monitoring, are standard rather than an add-on that costs extra.
This isn’t unheard of with modern technology, such as rearview cameras, which were once a luxury in some cars but were deemed so valuable that they became federally mandated to be installed in all newly manufactured vehicles.
Conclusion
Only time will tell whether these safety features will become standard among new vehicles. Still, it isn’t an impossibility, either, as even more modern tech has made its way into the requirements of new vehicles.
