New road safety ad from ANCAP shows the importance of tech

New commercials show a number of collisions and hair-raising near misses in an attempt to convince motorists to buy cars with the latest safety technology.

A new TV ad campaign shows the horrors that can occur on the road.

The road safety campaign is from the Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP), which is responsible for crash testing vehicles and handing down safety ratings.

The ad uses real-life dashcam footage from Australian drivers to show two common crash scenarios: near misses with pedestrians and crashes involving cars drifting into other lanes.

Footage shows pedestrians in near misses running across busy streets and cars drifting into other lanes causing violent accidents, including head-on collisions.

The purpose of the ad campaign is to highlight the importance of active safety technology in cars.

AEB will automatically apply the brakes if it senses you will hit the car in front.

Autonomous emergency braking (AEB) tech uses an array of sensors to determine whether a car is going to collide with the one in front. It sounds an alarm and if the driver takes no action, it applies the brakes automatically. Advanced AEB tech can also detect pedestrians and cyclists and brake if the vehicle senses an impending impact.

The other advanced technology is lane keeping assist, which detects when a vehicle is moving out of its lane and automatically moves the steering wheel slightly to put the car back on track. The technology feels as if the steering wheel is being tugged in the driver’s hand ever so slightly to maintain the vehicle’s position in the lane.

This is supported by lane departure warning tech, which sounds an alarm if the car senses you are drifting into another lane.

Advanced versions of AEB can also detect pedestrians and cyclists.

These driver aids can be especially helpful for driver inattention and fatigue.

ANCAP’s spokeswoman Rhianne Robson said the aim of the tech was to help reduce the impact your mistake on the road can cause you and others.

“The message is simple. Mistakes do happen, but today’s collision avoidance technologies can help turn a negative into a positive,” said Ms Robson.

“The dashcam footage clearly demonstrates that everyday mistakes happen to everyday people, yet a mistake on the road — whether it be yours or someone else’s — does not have to be fatal.”

Lane keep technology can help keep drivers centred in their lane.

For ANCAP to award a new car a five-star safety rating these technologies must be standard. However, this wasn’t always the case, so some cars might have a five star rating from a previous crash test but might not have these life-saving technologies as standard.

ANCAP said seven out of 10 new cars sold in Australia have AEB as standard, but it is estimated only seven per cent of the cars on the road are fitted with it because the average age of a car on the road is about 10 years.

This is why ANCAP is calling on all new car buyers to check their vehicles have these safety aids.

About 14 per cent of all road fatalities nationally involve pedestrians and 66 per cent of fatalities occur on regional or remote roads where drive fatigue may be an issue.