Seven safety features that could lower the cost of your car insurance

Here’s the million-dollar question: how do you avoid both an accident and save yourself money on car insurance? Thanks to modern safety technology, accident avoidance can help save you money.

Thanks to the modern array of active safety features you stand a far better chance of avoiding a collision than ever before. In the past, car makers focused on what’s called passive safety, seatbelts, airbags and other methods of protecting when you did have an accident. The notional theory was that accidents would happen but the engineers would do their best to protect the humans inside, often by sacrificing the car (the passenger safety cell is protected by crumple zones absorbing the energy). While a modern car still uses crumple zones and airbags, these days the industry is also using clever tech, to avoid having an accident in the first place.

Here are some of the key technologies you should look for when you buy your next car to ensure you give yourself the best chance to stay safe and save money.

Forward collision warning 

One of the most common accidents is when drivers become distracted, take their eyes off the road and miss the car in front slowing or stopping, and run into the back of the car ahead. With forward collision warning, the car’s camera and radar never get distracted and can warn you – with alarm sounds and flashing lights – if the traffic ahead slows, giving you time to react and avoid any problems.

Autonomous emergency braking

Should you not react in time to the forward collision warning, that’s when you’ll be grateful for autonomous emergency braking (AEB). As the name suggests, the car’s computer can determine if an accident is imminent and apply the brakes on its own, without the driver needing to do anything. Most modern systems not only react to cars but also pedestrians and cyclists, for added safety. However, it’s important to note that AEB doesn’t always avoid an accident and can only mitigate the damage, so you should always be paying attention.

Blind-spot monitoring 

Another common accident is missing a car, or quite often a motorcycle, in your blind spot and changing lanes at the wrong time, which is why blind spot monitoring (BSM) has become so popular across new vehicles. Using cameras and sensors it can keep a virtual eye out for cars and bikes that you may not see in the mirror, alerting you with either a light in your mirror or an alarm on the dashboard, or both.

Lane-keeping assist

The next step up from BSM is lane-keeping assistance (LKA), which can monitor where the car is within the lane markings and then override the steering, if necessary, to nudge you safely back into your own lane. For LKA to work effectively the lanes must be marked and typically it only works on relatively straight roads, for your car to drive itself around corners you’ll need more advanced autonomous driving technology.

Driver attention warning

We all like to think of ourselves as safe drivers but inevitably we’ll find ourselves either getting tired or distracted behind the wheel at certain times. To avoid this some modern vehicles are equipped with a camera and sensors that can monitor the driver, and their eyes, to the point it can track your head movement to determine whether you’ve got your eyes on the road or not. The system can then tell you to pay attention or even advise you to take a break.

Reversing camera

It may sound like an obvious item to have on your car, as reversing cameras have become so common, but getting a clear picture of precisely what is behind your vehicle can save you from potential disaster. Rear parking sensors are helpful, but they can’t show you what is really there, so it’s worth spending a bit extra to save any annoying rear-end damage to your vehicle.

Rear cross traffic alert and AEB

While a camera is good, the next level up is rear cross-traffic alert (RCTA) which can scan the immediate area behind the car and alert you if there are other vehicles, or even cyclists and pedestrians, approaching. If you get RCTA with AEB then your car can also apply the brakes itself if it detects a potential accident, saving you from costly damage.

^Disclaimer

^{Viva Energy Australia Pty Ltd (“Viva Energy”) has compiled the above article for your general information and to use as a general reference. Whilst all reasonable care has been taken by Viva Energy in compiling this article, Viva Energy does not warrant or represent that the information in the article is free from errors or omissions or is suitable for your intended use.}