Top 10 Automotive Safety Features of the Future

Washington DC April 9, 2007; The AIADA newsletter reported that the seat belt, made mandatory by Congress in the 1960s, set off a revolutionary leap in automobile safety and dramatically reduced lives lost in crashes.

If the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has its way, a second safety revolution may be in the offing. The NHTSA is recommending legislation making electronic stability control (ESC) equipment mandatory in all vehicles, estimating that the universal adoption of this technology by 2011 could save 10,000 lives a year.

Now, Forbes has compiled a list of what they believe could be the crucial safety features of the future. Increasingly, new auto-safety features will not be thought of as individual options and gadgets but as part of a common set of ears and eyes linked by a brain — or at least the automotive equivalent of the office's local area network. Forbes' list ranges from stability control to a tire pressure warning gauge.