Safety first for the civilian tanks we drive

Legislation and corporate fear have turned our vehicles into armoured cars. But Gavin Green sees change on the way

The invention of the car led directly, three decades later, to the creation of the tank. So it is perhaps appropriate that the military tank - loosely conceived by Leonardo da Vinci, loudly championed by Winston Churchill - would in turn influence the modern car.

Although far more graceful than the 30-tonne Daimler-powered Big Willie that went on trial in the early months of 1916, the modern car is similarly armour-plated to withstand assault. It can crash into a wall at 40mph with relative impunity and be clobbered side-on at 30mph. It can withstand rear-end collisions, roll-overs, and just about any other type of "imaginary" punishment inflicted by legislators.

Safety legislation - which began in the 1960s - demands standards to protect passengers in an accident but rarely bothers with standards to prevent one. Little wonder, then, that car-makers have spent much time and money building armour-plated tanks, whose svelte steel bodies hide a plethora of beams, bars, belts and bags. They may make the driver feel more confident and safe. But such stand-out safety has probably hurt driving standards, as semi-alert drivers blithely assume their own immortality.

The overweight cars bred by such legislation have had a ruinous impact on the environment (the heavier the car, the worse the fuel economy), have killed and maimed thousands of motorcyclists and pedal-cyclists (and drivers of smaller cars) partly through their heft and unwieldiness, and injured (often fatally) numerous pedestrians - a body of road users about whom safety legislation, until recently, has bothered not one jot.

You don't think modern cars are too fat? The average mid-sized hatchback, Britain's favourite type of car, weighs about 1,300kg - about 20 times the weight of an average adult. That compares with other popular forms of personal mobility, such as the bicycle (about 10kg) or the motor scooter (about 100kg). Of course a car is more capacious, more capable and far more comfortable. But is it right that our preferred form of personal mobility - that mostly carries only a single person - should be so heavy? And the mid-sized hatch, of course, is a motoring minnow in terms of mass. Some large cars and SUVs - still typically occupied by a single person, perhaps two - weigh more than 2.5 tonnes.

Safety legislation - crash protection, not crash avoidance - has actually reduced our chances of avoiding accidents. Most modern hatchbacks have vast thick rear roof pillars to meet crash standards. (The hatchback's short rear-end forces such thick, strong pillars.) These may help prevent Transit vans from ploughing through the boot. But they also damage visibility, making an accident more likely. Thick roof pillars are the prime reason modern cars have visibility more like a bunker than a bowl. It is partly why an increasing number of people are attracted to 4x4s, which offer a panorama rather than a peek.

Crash legislation gets ever tougher and litigation (another reason why manufacturers build their cars like tanks) gets ever more pernicious as drivers increasingly try to abrogate responsibility for their own actions. But in recent years the balance between primary safety (avoidance) and secondary safety (protection) - it is not for nothing that one is "primary", and the other is "secondary" - has started to swing the other way.

The full roll-call of accident avoidance technology is highlighted on the new Mercedes-Benz S-Class, probably the best car in the world (although, at two tonnes, no lightweight).

Radar cruise-control guidance allows the car to maintain a set distance from the car in front, from zero up to 125mph. So in traffic hold-ups the car stops and then accelerates again automatically when conditions allow. In essence, the car drives itself.

Infrared lights and an infrared sensitive camera turn night into day. An eight-inch display shows the camera image. And if the car senses the possibility of an accident, it automatically shuts the windows and the sunroof - this enables the safety systems (including the airbags) to work more effectively. If you successfully avoid the crash, the the windows and sunroof automatically go back to their original settings.

And your chances of avoidance are good. The S-Class has brakes that anticipate when emergency braking will be needed - thanks to radar that measures the distance to the car in front - and warns the driver to apply the brakes. As soon as the brakes are applied, optimal pressure is employed instantly. Naturally, anti-lock brakes - along with seat belts, the greatest single safety advance of all - are standard, and so is traction control (to avoid wheel-spin) and stability control (to avoid skids).

It is not just Mercedes who are assisting drivers in their quest to avoid accidents; all the major European, Japanese and American makers are at it. Citroën offers a lane-changing warning on its new C4. It reads the lines on the road. Wander off-course and the appropriate side of the driver's seat vibrates as a warning. Activating the indicators disables it. Honda has a similar system that, instead of vibrating your bottom, automatically corrects the steering.

Petrified by litigation, and bullied by legislators, manufacturers will develop more and more Big-Brother-ly cars. Accident avoidance will reach the point where vehicle-to-vehicle telematics determine where any vehicle is, relative to another. Two cars - or more - can communicate with each other, ensuring that they never collide.

Satellites will ensure vehicle spacing, and our speeds will be set. We will "drive" as evenly spaced, and at the same constant speed, as a row of train carriages - and with the same monotony of movement.

In the end, of course, driver-assistance may well make the driver redundant. We may reach a safety nirvana, blissful for legislators and safety activists, but bleak for those of us who derive pleasure from responsibility and the act of controlling a car.

Mind you, as cars will never collide, they can shed their safety armour. At last, they will be light and efficient! The tank will finally be dead.

Night vision

About 25 per cent of all fatal crashes occur between 4pm and 9pm, the majority in the winter months. A number of manufacturers such as BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Honda are moving to respond to this challenge. These night-view systems use infra-red light (invisible to the human eye and does not dazzle oncoming traffic). Infra-red headlamps illuminate the road and an infra-red camera mounted on the inside of the windscreen records the reflected image of the road ahead and displays this in the instrument cluster. Brighter bi-xenon headlamps help, too.

Safety Cell

The idea of a "safe" rigid cell surrounded by softer "crumple zones" to protect people in a crash came from Bela Barenyi, a hero of car safety who worked as an engineer for Mercedes-Benz. The idea was patented in 1951 and went into production in 1959 on the "fintail" series.

Adaptive Cruise Control

This feature is being fitted to an increasing number of cars. Unlike conventional cruise control, where a speed is set and it's up to the driver to speed up or slow down according to conditions, these systems detect vehicles in front of the car, calculate the travelling speed and maintain a speed-related safety distance between the vehicles through active brake and engine control. Once there is no vehicle in the scanning range, the system accelerates the car to the pre-selected speed. You still have to steer, though.

Airbags

A by-product of American drivers' distaste for seat belts. First fitted as standard by General Motors to Buicks and Cadillacs in 1974, various bags and curtains can now cover virtually every part of a car's interior. Deceleration sensors at the front of a car detect a collision and the bags inflate at some 180mph. Passengers in cars fitted with airbags have approximately 30 per cent less chance of dying in an accident than in comparable cars without airbags fitted. Just don't smoke that pipe.

Stability control

First there were mechanical brakes (bits of wire); then hydraulics; then disc brakes; then anti-lock brakes. Now we have comprehensive stability control, with BMW and Mercedes-Benz the pioneers. It compares the driver's intended direction via steering and braking inputs, to the vehicle's response. The system then brakes individual front or rear wheels and adjusts engine power as needed to help correct understeer or oversteer. But it's better not to get in trouble in the first place...

Whatever next?

POP-UP BONNET SYSTEM

The latest thing to protect pedestrians and cyclists. This is Honda's version of the pop-up bonnet, but similar systems can be found in Jaguar's new Xk sports car and the Citroen C6. Sensors detect a frontal impact and a small explosive device then lifts the bonnet, so preventing the person from hitting the hard engine.

BLIND SPOT INFORMATION SYSTEM

Volvo have come up with a novel solution to an old problem. A digital camera system is incorporated into the door mirrors, which monitors the area alongside the car for cars or motorbikes, then alerts the driver via an orange light in the car's A-pillar by the door mirror. BLIS also works after dark, when it will react to the headlamps of vehicles. You still need to look over your shoulder.

CANINE SAFETY HARNESS

Well, no one wants a labrador crashing into the back of their head in an accident, do they? BMW is the first car manufacturer in the world to offer a bespoke restraint device for dogs. Different sizes are available offering protection for your pooch from 7kg to 40kg. Protect Fido, and yourself, for £75.95. And don't let him chew it.