Demystifying Safety Features in Cars… By Auto Maker

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Credit: Scotty Reiss

Blind spot monitors on the Volvo XC40 are large and easy to see. Photo: Scotty Reiss

Safety features are designed to help you drive better. If they don’t drive you nuts.

They beep. They buzz. They light up and flash. They take some of the weight off the driver when it comes to safety features in cars and sometimes they jump right in and take the wheel. Advanced safety technologies are more and more common, many of them as standard equipment on new cars.

But auto makers can give them fancy-schmancy names that can be confusing. How do you know what you’re getting? Even the list of standard and advanced safety features can confound. So, we decide to break it down for you so you (and we, because, hey, there is a lot) know what they mean. Then, read on for a brand-by-brand look at what is offer in each new car.

Basic Safety Features

These are included in most new vehicles now:

TRACTION CONTROL
Traction control limits wheel spin on slippery surfaces when driving in a straight line.

VEHICLE STABILITY CONTROL
Vehicle stability control helps maintain control when turning on slippery surfaces.

REAR-VIEW CAMERA
A rear-view supplements your vision when in reverse. All vehicles built from May 2018 on must, by-law, have a back-up camera.

TIRE PRESSURE MONITORING SYSTEM
A tire pressure monitoring system alerts you when it senses low pressure in one of your tires.

DOWNHILL ASSIST CONTROL
Downhill Assist Control helps the vehicle maintain stability on steep downgrades at low speeds by controlling the speed and preventing the brakes from locking.

HILL START ASSIST CONTROL
The hill start assist helps prevent the vehicle from rolling backward when starting off on an incline.

ANTI-LOCK BRAKES
ABS helps prevent brakes from locking up by “pulsing” brake pressure to each wheel to help you stay in control in emergency braking situations.

Advanced Safety Features in Cars

BLIND SPOT MONITOR
The blind spot monitor indicates on your side-view mirrors with a light and/or sound when there is a vehicle in your blind spot and you’ve put your turn signal on.

REAR CROSS TRAFFIC ALERT
The rear cross-traffic alert alerts you of rear cross-traffic and helps to avoid collisions when backing up.

BRAKE ASSIST
Brake Assist is designed to detect sudden or “panic” braking and then add the full pressure needed to help prevent a collision.

PARKING ASSIST
A parking assist system uses sensors mounted around the vehicle to detect obstacles close by and alerts you with an audible signal.

INTELLIGENT CRUISE CONTROL – ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL – DYNAMIC RADAR CRUISE CONTROL
Whatever the manufacturer is calling it, this means the vehicle is measuring the distance from the vehicle ahead and controls acceleration and deceleration to automatically maintain a suitable following distance.

COLLISION MITIGATION/DETECTION SUPPORT – FORWARD EMERGENCY BRAKING – PRE-COLLISION SYSTEM
Collision mitigation means that radar is detecting possible pedestrians, cyclists, and structures and stopped or slowing vehicles ahead and will audibly warn you and ultimately brake for you automatically. This system’s functionality varies from manufacturer to manufacturer.

LANE DEPARTURE WARNING/ALERT
Lane departure and lane-keep assist will alert you if you start to drift out of your lane when there are clear lane markings, road edges or curbs.

LANE KEEPING ASSIST or LANE TRACE ASSIST
The lane keep assist or steering assist function will also provide small corrective steering inputs if Lane Keep Assist or Steering Assist

AUTOMATIC HIGH BEAMS
Automatic high beams can switch between high and low beams for you depending on oncoming and preceding cars’ lights and depending on the circumstances.

ELECTRONIC BRAKE DISTRIBUTION
When coupled with Anti-lock brakes, the Electronic Brake Distribution system helps keep the vehicle more stable and balanced when braking.

SIGN RECOGNITION
When your vehicle passes a speed limit sign, a camera sees it and displays the speed limit on your dash screen and/or head-up display.

INTELLIGENT REARVIEW MIRROR
This feature turns your rearview mirror into a camera screen, giving you a vivid, wide-angle view, day or night.

ADAPTIVE FRONT LIGHTING
At night, your headlights move in the direction that you’re turning by up to 15 degrees.

So, what brands are incorporating these features and what do they call them?

TOYOTA

STAR SAFETY SYSTEM

Toyota includes the Star Safety System as standard equipment in their vehicles. This includes:

TOYOTA SAFETY SENSE (TSS)

Toyota Safety Sense is standard on almost all Toyota models and trims and includes:

Toyota also has advanced or upgraded versions of this called TSSC (for compact cars) and TSSP (for larger SUVs).

Further Reading: Why we love the Toyota Avalon Hybrid

HONDA + ACURA

All Honda vehicles have the following safety features:

Not all vehicles in the Honda lineup include all of Honda Sensing safety features, but many do include some or all of them.

HONDA SENSING:

A Honda safety feature not available on any other brand that we know of (and we love it!) is LaneWatch.

LANE WATCH
When your right turn signal is on, the camera on the passenger side mirror will turn on and display live video of the right side of the car on your display touch-screen. It has nearly four times more visibility than the average passenger-side mirror.

Subaru EyeSight

Designed to work like the human eye, the Subaru system combines dual color cameras that converge on objects like the road ahead to detect things the way you would. The system includes:

NISSAN

Nissan Intelligent Safety Shield technologies on most Nissan models include some or all:

INTELLIGENT DRIVER ALERTNESS

This system monitors your steering patterns. Should the system detect any unusual steering activity (indicating driver fatigue), it will alert you audibly with a chime, and visually by lighting a coffee cup icon on your display, letting you know it may be time for a break.

PROPILOT ASSIST:

Nissan ProPilot Assist is available on Rogue, Rogue Sport, Leaf and Ultima models.

Further Reading:  The Nissan Altima AWD test drive

GMC & CHEVROLET

GMC doesn’t put a packaged name on their safety features but you can see exactly which features are included in each vehicle model and trim here for GMC and here for Chevrolet. https://www.gmc.com/safety-features

GMC offers these features in many of their model lineups:

Teen Driver is available on select Chevrolet and GMC Vehicles as well:

Teen Driver offers a number of safety functionalities:

MAZDA

i-ActiveSense

The Mazda i-Activesense group of technologies includes:

Not all features are available on all new Mazda models, so be sure to ask your dealer or do your research while you test drive to see what features are available in the model you’re considering.

FORD + LINCOLN

Ford calls their two groups of safety features Ford Co-Pilot360 and Safe & Smart. Both packages come with various advanced safety features you’ll want:

Safe & Smart

Safe & Smart is a group of standard safety features with Ford:

Available in 2019 Mustang, Escape, and Explorer. Also available in 2018 Mustang, Escape, Edge.

Co-Pilot360 is an advanced suite of standard Driver Assist Technologies:

Co-Pilot360 Assist Plus includes all of the above features plus:

Available in select 2019 Fusion, Edge and Ranger and many Lincoln models.

Further Reading: All New 2020 Lincoln Corsair Drive

KIA

Kia doesn’t give a packaged name to its advanced safety features but has the following features available on some or all of their vehicle lineup:

HYUNDAI

Hyundai calls its safety suite SmartSense. It’s a group of technologies not available on all models, but plenty of them.

SmartSense:

Safe Exit Alert

This safety feature, which we’ve only seen on Hyundai, is for when you’re parallel parked and the vehicle detects an approaching vehicle from behind, it will not allow your child to exit the back seats, and even override the child safety lock feature.

CHRYSLER, DODGE, JEEP

FCA doesn’t give a packaged name to its advanced safety features but has the following features available on some or all of their vehicle lineup:

BMW

Most BMW models have all basic safety features, some models and trims include advanced features such is:

  • Active Cruise Control with Stop&Go
  • Steering and lane control assistant
  • Lane-keeping assistant
  • Lane Departure Warning
  • Lane Change Warning

BMW Driving Assistant includes:

  • Approach control warning with pedestrian detection and warning with light city braking function
  • Speed Limit Info including No-overtaking indicator and Lane Departure Warning
  • Rear Crossing traffic warning
  • Lane Change Warning
  • Rear collision prevention.
  • At speeds of over 70 km/h, Lane Departure Warning recognizes lane markings and draws the driver’s attention to an unintentional lane change by means of vibrations in the steering wheel.
  • Emergency braking

BMW Active Protection includes:

Active Protection warns the driver if it detects signs of tiredness, safety belts are pretensioned in critical situations, electric seats are returned to upright positions and the windows and sliding roof are closed. After an accident occurs, the brakes are automatically applied until the car reaches a standstill.

MERCEDES-BENZ

Mercedes-Benz Intelligent Drive includes a suite of features including:

VOLVO

Intellisafe is standard on all new Volvo Cars and includes:

Intelisafe Surround is the next level up and includes:

Volkswagen + Audi

Volkswagen doesn’t bundle their advanced safety features by name, but some or all VW’s have these features available:

Audi offers:

Mitsubishi

Mitsubishi offers advanced safety features such as:

TESLA

Tesla made it well know they offer ‘Autopilot’ mode. But what does this even mean? It’s really just a set of advanced safety features offered by other vehicle brands (as listed above) as well.

Part of what Autopilot means is future capability, with an emphasis on FUTURE. Tesla allows for future software upgrades and existing hardware that may be able to allow for completely autonomous driving including

  • Navigation
  • Auto-steer
  • Summon (your vehicle may come get you in a parking lot)
  • Full self-driving capability

So there you have it. All of the current standard and advanced safety (and even future) features. So now you know what’s beeping at you and why.

By Connie Peters

Connie Peters is a mother of 3 girls in suburban Vancouver, Canada and has been an online entrepreneur since... More about Connie Peters

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