Vehicle Active Safety Systems: Do you know what it is?
Vehicle manufacturers incorporate innovative safety systems to avoid, as far as possible, that an accident occurs when a driver is distracted.
Currently, a vehicle is equipped with systems that avoid an accident, but given the event that it occurs, there are other components that will cause injuries and impacts against the driver, occupants, pedestrians or cyclists to minimize the consequences of a crash or accident.
Active Security Systems
Active safety is considered to be those components of a vehicle that give it more stability, reduce the risk of having an accident and continually prevent the accident from occurring. The most important active safety systems that vehicles incorporate are the following:
Suspension System
The suspension system of a vehicle is one of the most important and is responsible for providing it with sufficient stability through stabilizer bars, suspension arms… making the vehicle circulate with total stability both in curves and on uneven terrain.
Among the current suspension systems we can highlight the predictive suspension that the Audi brand mounts in its A8 model, the adaptive suspension that Volkswagen incorporates in some of its models and of course, the conventional suspensions of the other brands, which are the basis of previous.
Braking System
It is a main system within the active security of the vehicle. It reduces speed in the face of unforeseen events and is the basis of ABS (antilock brake system) and ESP (Electronic stability program).
Brakes reduce the stopping distance in the face of an obstacle. When we talk about the ESP system (also called “anti-tip”), it acts when the driver loses control of the vehicle. This system is equipped with sensors on the wheels (which are the same that collect the wheel turn signal for ABS), a sensor on the steering wheel and a control unit. All the information is processed and the control unit acts on the necessary elements, in case of imminent.
See More: What is electric parking brake?
The Tires
These are another component that has a great responsibility for active safety in the vehicle. The design or tread must be the suitable one and the components of its good quality manufacture.
In addition, if the inflation pressure is correct, all this will cause the vehicle to circulate in a stable manner and the adhesion to the pavement is the maximum to avoid accidents. A bad tire will cause the vehicle to be unsafe.
Direction System
The steering in a vehicle is a set of components that are responsible for guiding the wheels, at the driver’s request, so that the trajectory is correct, making the maneuvers smooth and progressive.
The constant evolution of this system has led to the fact that there are currently several steering systems, which are built or incorporated by vehicle manufacturers and each one of them, more sophisticated and intelligent. With this system, the driver can decide where to orient his vehicle in a safe and instantaneous way.
The Lighting System
The control of the lights of our vehicle, as long as it works in an efficient way, contributes to making it a very important active security system when we drive, both day and night.
By day, daylight systems make it possible to be seen by other road users on roads with dark asphalt, if we are driving with a vehicle that is also dark in color. At night, a good lighting system, with a correct range of the light beam and a wide vision, will make driving very safe at night.
We have moved from a halogen lighting system to Xenon systems and currently Led lights, all of them combined with intelligent headlights that guide the light with the turning of the steering wheel and with the speed of the vehicle, regulating the range of the beam of light to give greater visibility and security, thus providing a perfect vision.