Breakthrough or bauble? Safety lab is on the case: IIHS, regulators to grade crash avoidance gear

摘要

They come with names like City Safety, Smart City, EyeSight, Distronic Plus and Pre-Safe. They promise to watch out for the things you don't notice and react to them before you have a chance to. They are the new generation of crash-prevention technologies, the next frontier in automotive safety. Automakers are marketing them aggressively, charging hundreds or thousands of dollars for add-on packages with such features as automated braking, lane-departure warning and adaptive cruise control. Researchers and Silicon Valley futurists see them as the building blocks of so-called autonomous vehicles, whose interacting sensors and software can out-think drivers and virtually eliminate the risk of car accidents.