Vehicles with advanced safety features

As vehicles become lighter, faster and more powerful the need for an enhanced sense of safety begins to weigh on the minds of today’s drivers. Innovations in engine and chassis design may have grown in leaps and bounds, but those same designs in vehicles with advanced safety features are going to stand out in the crowd in inspiring driver confidence.

To ensure maximum safety on the road, drivers can enjoy a range of protective and preventative systems now incorporated into vehicles with advanced safety features. Pre-sense systems, adaptive headlights and electronic stability programmes (ESP) all work together to give drivers not only a greater reaction time but more control at a critical moment.

Pre-sense Systems

The ability to employ preventive protection measures to mitigate the consequences of a collision should be a key feature in vehicles with advanced safety features.

The front and rear of vehicles with advanced safety features are equipped with radar sensors that scan the area in front of and behind the car. When this is combined with a video camera monitoring the road ahead and further information from an electronic stability programme, a pre-sense system can create a highly realistic impression of the vehicle’s surroundings.

A pre-sense system is critical if a dangerous driving situation happens to arise and has the ability to warn the driver, increase the braking force or even activate preventive protection systems like tensioning the front seat belts while closing the sunroof and windows.

Adaptive headlights

Regular headlights are only capable of illuminating a straight section of road. This has always meant that during cornering, the road ahead and any obstacles just around the bend used to remain hidden for some time.

Adaptive headlights are designed to dynamically adjust to the movements of the steering-wheel, as well as changes in the vehicle’s heading.

Adaptive headlights calculate this necessary change in headlight position from various parameters including road speed, steering angle and yaw rate and can swivel up to 15°, helping drivers to see further and thus earlier in poor light conditions.

Adaptive headlights can thus effectively illuminate the path of the road ahead during cornering. This drastically improves safety because drivers can now see obstacles and other road-users early, allowing them time to react.

Electronic Stability Programme

When skidding during an emergency evasive action or when a poorly judged turn on a slippery road results in either understeer or oversteer, vehicle stability and driver reaction is often all that stands between regaining control and a collision.

Vehicles with advanced safety features are able to quickly and efficiently adapt to these situations through a sophisticated electronic stability programme.

An electronic stability programme improves the safety of a vehicle's stability by detecting and minimizing skids. They can detect when there is a loss of steering control and automatically apply the brakes to help keep a vehicle in the direction intended by the driver.

The brakes are also applied to wheels individually so oversteer can be countered by targeting the outer front wheel and understeer the inner rear wheel. This greatly assists drivers in recovering from dangerous situations.

Combined, these innovations in vehicles with advanced safety features mean that driving can be more enjoyable and more exhilarating than ever while still being safe and inspiring driver confidence.

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Audi South Africa continues their tradition of constant innovation in luxury vehicles with advanced safety features. Contact your nearest Audi dealer to test drive an Audi and experience a safer, more enjoyable ride.