Top five safety features you might not have considered

When it comes to safety features – from seat belts and airbags, through to anti-lock braking and electronic stability control – most of us are familiar with the basics.

We’re also getting to grips with more advanced driver assist technology such as autonomous emergency braking (AEB) that’s in line to become standard on all new vehicles sold in Australia.

But there’s a whole world of technology out there that’s impacting the safety features list of new models in the pipeline for Australia – as well as some that are already on sale.

And these are not only from premium brands, but mainstream brands such as Hyundai and Kia too.

Here’s our top five…

Whether it’s a better view of what’s going on in the back stalls or, when the car is jam-packed, the road behind, we’re mightily impressed with the latest camera tech that’s become available.

The new 2021 Hyundai Staria, for one, has a useful Rear Passenger View Monitor that covers the second and third rows and provides a view for the front occupants via the 10.25-inch central touch-screen display.

The ‘spy’ camera can help remove the distraction that comes from disruptions in the rear seats, to say nothing of the time spent staring into those pesky baby-viewing interior mirrors.

Looking further afield, the ClearSight rear-view mirror on various Land Rover and Range Rover models on sale in Australia is quite wonderful for providing a wide-angle view of the road and traffic behind.

A high-definition camera mounted at the back of the car reproduces the image on the rear-view mirror, providing ‘clear sight’ even if there are heads or cargo blocking the view – or, in the case of the Land Rover Defender, part of the spare tyre on the tailgate.

Now available on several models from car-makers including Audi, Hyundai and Kia, the Safe Exit Assist system is designed to alert vehicle occupants of oncoming objects before they a swing a door open in the path of another car, pedestrian, cyclist or skateboarder, for example.

Particularly useful for young children or those unaware of their surroundings, various cameras and sensors around a vehicle fitted with this tech can detect oncoming obstacles and either warn passengers with an audible chime or, in some cases, temporarily lock the door until the road is clear. 

You could argue that this is perhaps more of a gimmick than a safety feature, but it’s cool tech that makes life more interesting and does have its benefits in difficult situations.

Remote Smart Park Assist, or RSPA, has been available for some time on luxury cars but rose to prominence last year with its inclusion on high-grade versions of the Kia Sorento, which was named carsales’ 2020 Car of the Year. It’s also filtering into a variety of other models from Kia and Hyundai.

Using the vehicle’s key fob (with no one in the vehicle), you can remotely start and ‘walk’ your car forwards and backwards, albeit slowly, in and out of tight parking spaces or other locations that may be difficult to access.

It’s a cool party trick, and always great to see someone’s surprise the first time they see it in action, but we’ve found it to be a useful tool for families with small kids and baby seats.

We’ve also used it to move the vehicle forward from a difficult-to-access parking location off-road.

From 2023, independent vehicle safety authority ANCAP will introduce several new aspects to its safety rating regime, one of which will reward manufacturers for including potentially life-saving tech for people trapped inside submerged cars.

Vehicle submergence systems are designed to waterproof a car’s electronics, ensuring its power windows and door locks remain functional for a period of at least 10 minutes after a vehicle enters floodwaters or a body of water, to allow occupants to escape.

If not fitted with the waterproofed electronics, vehicles will require a window-breaking tool or mechanism and instructions in the owner’s manual in order to achieve a full five-star safety rating from ANCAP after 2023.

As it stands, this technology isn’t yet available in vehicles sold in Australia. 

Most of us are familiar with airbags designed to protect you inside the cabin, and you might’ve even seen the cool external airbags that pop out of the wheel-arches in the event of a side impact, to help the vehicle ‘bounce’ off an object…

But did you know about pedestrian airbags?

Designed to pop out from the base of the windscreen in the event of a frontal impact, the bonnet (or pedestrian) airbag covers the lower portion of the windscreen and front pillars, and is designed to reduce the impact to a pedestrian’s head in the event of a collision.

These are already employed on various models in Australia including the Audi A5, Jaguar E-PACE and I-PACE, Land Rover Discovery Sport, Range Rover Evoque and Volvo V40.