Cars In The Future : Conclusion
Return to Cars In The FutureVehicle technology can improve the transport system in many ways, but specifically in the context of this paper, it has the potential to reduce the number of accidents on the roads.
There are a vast number of new technologies available on new vehicles or top of the range vehicles that will become more common in future, there are also many more technologies being researched. All of which are designed to alert, assist, or take control from, the driver, and all respond to different dangers at different intervals before an accident occurs.
It is important that the most beneficial of these technologies are identified at an early stage and emphasis is put on introducing them as early as possible. This emphasis must consist of; ensuring that resources are dedicated towards developing the technology and validating it’s safety effects, promoting the safety benefits of the technology to the public in the wider context of road safety, and ensuring early take up of the technology where possible.
The success of this emphasis is dependant upon developing vehicle safety policy as much as it is the engineering aspects of vehicle safety. A policy framework that identifies how and to what extent technology will play a part in meeting targets in the larger road safety strategy – and indeed national transport strategy – needs to be in place.
All stakeholders need to take a proactive approach to the inclusion of vehicle technology in road safety, and indeed health and safety, policies. It is important that road safety policies and strategies develop with technology.
We have recently seen an example of how early versions of ‘priority’ technology can support road safety enforcement and education activities. The Road Safety Act allows courts to use alcolocks as part of the sentence following a drink-drive conviction.
Pro-active fleet managers who are looking to reduce the risk to their employees as part of a strategy to manage occupational road risk within an organisations health and safety arrangements are also well placed to advocate emerging technology.
Another main point that this policy should highlight is that the safe use of vehicle technology is dependant on the one key interaction – that between the human and the technology.
It is important that this is addressed from both sides – by ensuring that the controls are intuitive for drivers, and that the drivers are properly trained in the use of new vehicle technology.
The issue of making sure that drivers receive appropriate training for the use on in-vehicle equipment is crucial, as the use of some of the new equipment will require fundamentally different skills to the ones currently learnt by drivers during the driving test. It is important that drivers are encouraged to attend refresher courses and courses suitably designed to help prepare a driver for the new ways of interacting with vehicles, and that businesses address this requirement for their employees to learn new skills.
In the long term, there must be an emphasis on how to use these new technologies safely within the driving test. Ensuring that the driver has the appropriate training for the equipment will also be important when hiring cars, and indeed when cars are bought and sold second hand.
In future, these training issues will be more fundamental to the usability, and indeed benefits of vehicle technology. Up until recently, vehicle safety technology has required no great amount of interaction from the driver. Passive safety where the greatest benefit has been gained works to prevent driver injury, with only the requirement that a driver buckles the seat belt. Braking and stability systems assist driver’s actions and limit the consequences of driver error by magnifying the effectiveness of the drivers manoeuvre, a driver in a vehicle with ESC should still respond to a hazard in the same way whether it is fitted or not.
Cars are changing, and in order to get the best out of any new technology, we all need to understand how.
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