Asleep at the Wheel
Picture this… you are driving your family back from a rocking summer vacation. Its late, the oncoming traffic keeps blinding you with headlight glare, which kills your eyes. Everyone is asleep, and having sweet dreams of the days events. You want to sleep too. You try to shift in your drivers seat to get comfortable, but stay alert and aware of your surroundings. After a while, your body starts to give in to road fatigue, and starts to weaken. Your eyes start to get heavy, and want to rest. For a split second, you doze! And in that split second your vehicle starts veering off the road into a corn field.
I will let you play the rest of it out in your head…I have a very similar situation. Talk about a scary moment in time! I woke up real quick.
Toyota Offers Advanced Safety Features
Toyota Motor raised the ante for autonomous driving technology by announcing that advanced safety first features such as forward-collision avoidance, lane departure and dynamic cruise control will be offered across its product line, including its smallest and least expensive models by 2017.
The No. 1 global automaker worldwide in terms of sales also it said will increase investment in its Collaborative Safety Research Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan by $35 million over the next five years. The initiative, with multiple academic partners, will focus on automated technology, human-machine interface and wireless communication among vehicles and the transportation infrastructure.
Toyota, however, insists its goal isn’t a driverless car, rather vehicles that are so safe that accidents and casualties would become extremely rare.
“Our vision is of a world without traffic fatalities, and these advanced connected and automated vehicle technologies hold the potential to revolutionize automotive safety,” said Seigo Kuzumaki, Chief Safety Technology Officer. “We are committed to bringing advanced active safety systems to market as quickly as possible and will make them accessible to a broad range of drivers.” Fortune.com
Safety First is Important in My Family
With 5 plus kids/teens in our household we tend to worry about who, what, when, and where. Staci and I find ourselves worrying about the safety of our little people. So when I can invest in something like a collision alert system or blind side monitoring I get excited. With this, it is just an additional tool to help us keep everyone safe.
I have tried out a few of Toyota’s vehicles that are equipped with some of these automated safety features, and they work well. you should stop by your local Toyota dealership to try for yourself.