Crystal Conde

Research Paper
English 1101
Second Draft
Note to Reader: I read through the comments and make changes based on what was
suggested. I still focused on getting away from the research paper and incorporating more of
my own voice as before.


Technology in your Driveway
Close your eyes. Picture where you spend a bulk of your time each day. Work? School? Home?
Believe it or not the average American spends a bulk of their day in their cars. This seems like
an unlikely place, believe me I would have never imagined that we spend nearly 5 years of our
lives in a car either. That is what got me interested in this topic to begin with. If I am spending
so much time in my car I would want it to not only be safe but interactive, simplistic and even a
little fun. When entering the car the seat moves back in order for you to get in, they seem to be
quite chivalrous these new cars. Along with interactive technology that knows when you are
about to get in the cars can recognize your voice and respond at your command. They can play
any song you have in mind and like in the movies; if you have one of the new BMWs it can
display holograms on the dashboard on the speedometer and odometer. Holograms and such
advanced technology who could have imagined that what was only just an imaginative idea has
become reality.
The use of technology has been on the rise and its implementation is widely seen in cars
worldwide. Technology can recognize our voices, iPhones scan our thumb prints and lock
screens of smartphones have face recognition. The same technological capabilities have been
recently transferred to a new world of ours, our personal vehicles. Fords new active sync
transfers cellphone information to the car and lets you command your phone actions through
voice activation (ESQ). The increase in these small features has become popular throughout the
consumer market. The manufacturers took it a step further and created sensors that can stop
the car before an accident as well as park assist to get into those tight spots. People seem to
love these new features and it is making driving not only fun but safe. This technology is fairly
new, within the past 2 years, but it has shown promise thus far. Accidents rates in the UK have
dropped nearly 3% with a direct correlation to some of these features that is pushing the US to
follow in Britains footsteps. My question is are these technologies actually safe or will the
drivers will rely on their cars and will cause more distractions? I will look at the different
technologies placed inside cars to make them safer and compare results across borders,
between the United States and the UK.
Cars have been around since Henry Ford first made the revolutionary change
introducing the Model T in 1908. The Model T was a basic 4 cylinder engine powered vehicle
with 22 horsepower. The cylinders of a car mean that there are 4 pistons in the engine. The
pistons determine how much speed and power the engine gives. The power of the engine is
measured in horsepower. This type of car in this day and age seems almost unreasonable. The
cars now not only come with engines that are equipped with up to 400 horsepower. With a
vehicle of such high magnitude and force safety should be of top priorities to these car
companies producing such high performance vehicles, and it is.
US car companies must abide by regulations set forth by the US Federal government and the
Department of Transportation. The US Federal regulations include everything from seat belts,
airbags, child lock on the back doors, as well as the proper front and rear lights. For
comparative analysis I would like to look at the United States and Great Britain. The UK has set
many safety precautions that the US does not. The benefits of these are easily seen. The
mortality rate due to vehicular accidents for the US in 2011 was 34,080 (that does not account
for pedestrian death) coming from the US department of Transportation numbers in 2011. The
equivalent to the US DOT in England is call the Department for Transport and is broken down in
providences, recorded the fatality rate for 2012 was 1,754 deaths. The reason England has
such low rates is that newer model vehicles come standard with electrically assisted sensor
brakes. This means that the car can detect when an object is near and if the driver does not
break within a few meters the car will start to slow down on its own in order to prevent an
accident. It is obvious that presented by the facts that such increases do more good than harm.
The number of fatal accidents in the UK have shown a direct correlation with the technology
implementation that the country is in the midst of passing an under the European Certificate
of Conformity the vehicles that undergo inspection but have this feature or the option to
install electronically assisted sensor brake feature. It has not official been set into place but
the ministry is actively discussing this and will be set forth as early as 2015. Those cars that do
not these guidelines will be fined in the years to come (Electrically Assisted Pedal Cycles.) I
would get the hardware installed rather than pay a fine. I would eventually have to keep paying
so might as well invest it into something that will help keep my family and me safe.
England has a high priority with technology in their vehicles and has been pushing for
assisted braking systems as I explained earlier. The main difference between England and the
US can be seen with a heavy use of back up cameras, something that the British have not opted
for quite yet. England has not used the back up cameras because with the electrically assisted
brake pedals they have seen such a decrease in accident rates that they do not feel they need
to install back up cameras. They are satisfied with the statistics as is for right now. Rear back up
related incidents caused more than 200 injures each year. Ford, a US car company, has taken
that into account. All Ford models SUVs, sedans, coupes and trucks starting from 2011 some
standard equipped with back up cameras. These small cameras are placed in the back above
the license plate, though in the past year they have changed the location and made it very
discreet placing it within the actual logo. Fords true price market value has not increased
thought the MSRP is going up. That is to be expected since the cars are being more luxurious
rather than conventional. Ford in a press conference stated, that they wanted to promote
safety above all and comfort second. If you are safe then in turn you will feel much more
comfortable in the car. Toyota has been doing the same. Because Toyota is part of the Japanese
district motors their prices are seen to be cheaper compared to domestic companies. Toyota
focusing on making their cars lightweight in order to make them more fuel efficient. Toyota has
to have a higher factor of safety because the cars are so lightweight. They take precautions
when it comes to circuitry and wiring. Toyota has had several recalls in the past including the
recent runaway Yaris where the gas pedal would get jammed. Toyota is looking to improve
safety with cars that communicate. Integrated systems on a most basic level consist of wireless
devices that let cars "talk" to each other and to roadside devices in order to take safety
precautions or give the driver advice. (Car tech)This means that the more systems out on the
road the more communicative talk there will be. The increase in sensors is much better and
safer so it gives the car the sense it knows where it is going. It is like a seeing eye dog who is
guiding his owner, the more the dog is aware of and see the more he can tell the owner which
will be much safer for the man who cant see. Toyota is a participant on CAMP (Crash
Avoidance Metrics Project), a project organized by the Vehicle Safety Communications
Consortium 3 (VSC3), an automaker alliance that is comprised of Nissan, Honda, Toyota,
Hyundai-Kia, Ford, General Motors, Mercedes-Benz, and Volkswagen. These are all big
recognizable car brands and quite a few have become a part of this Communications Project
which only further shows how technology is on the rise in cars. Companies continue to get on
board and join projects like these because they know technology has improved the safety of the
customers
I have explained quite a bit about these features but I have not explained how it works in
practice. The driver will first get a set of increasingly urgent visual and audio warnings when
their car approaches a potential threat. If they ignore them, auto braking may be applied to
prevent an accident, but even then the driver can retake control. Mr. Lovell a software
engineer working with self-braking for Toyota. He is very experienced, credited and has been
working with Toyota for nearly 12years he explains, "If auto braking were to start, if the users
applies the brake or throttle all [automated] braking is canceled." It follows the design of cruise
control. It will work until you tell it not to. This is good because if you are trying to park or get
close to a car you do not want the car to keep braking, that would get annoying after awhile.
Technology has shaped the world we live in and now the cars we drive. The National
Highway Traffic and Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Research and Innovative
Technology Association (RITA), the two U.S. government groups overseeing the technology, will
make a critical decision near the end of 2014 that will affect whether these safety features are
here to stay. The groups will rule whether to acknowledge if the technologies have advanced
sufficiently to make a difference the crash safety ratings and if any mandatory ruling will be set
in place. The technology that car companies are using in modern age is becoming so advanced
that they seem as things only seen in movies. The famous movie Transformers has car that can
talk, drive by them and their one mission is to protect the humans. That sounds almost crazy
but that is what our cars are doing. The cars ask where we would like to navigate to, tell us
when we are running low on gas, and beep when we do not have our seatbelt on. Our personal
cars cannot drive themselves but have all these sensors and safe drive features that if we were
to get in an accident can stop, cars can park, and Mercedes is making a cars that swerves back
in the correct lane if there is a car when switching lanes. Google has been trying to develop a
car that totally drives itself. We are living a movie life, and a good movie at that. Transformers
dont seem so out of this world anymore. The car companies are making such cars because they
protect the consumer and are much safer. Hm, sounds like Transformers to me.


Work Cited
"Advanced Technology and Alternative Fuel Vehicles.. U.S. Department of Energy, n.d. Web. 27
Mar 2014. <http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy01osti/27957.pdf
"ESQ - Vehicles." ESQ - Vehicles. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Mar. 2014.
Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, n.d. Web. 27 Mar. 2014.
Quick Reference Guide to the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards and Regulations.
Published by the NHTSA. Web. Accessed 24 Mar 14.
"Tell Us What You Think of GOV.UK." Vehicle Safety Standards Information Sheets. N.p., n.d.
Web. 27 Mar. 2014.