In 2023 car occupants accounted for 45% of road users killed in 2023 according to a government report. With Road Safety Week approaching (17 to 23 November), it's a timely reminder that ensuring your car has the right safety features can make all the difference to reducing the severity of an accident or avoiding one completely. So what safety features might you expect to be able to access as standard or as optional extras in your lease car in 2024? Safety features can be grouped into active and passive categories:
What are active safety features?
Active safety features are those that intervene before an accident to improve safety and, where possible, prevent an accident from happening. Often termed as Advanced Driver Assistance Systems, they can sometimes be customised from within a car’s touchscreen interface. There are some features that must switch on every time the car starts (such as speed limit warnings), while others are optional. Some active safety features are mandatory on all new cars, for example, as of 7 July all new cars in Europe need to be fitted with certain safety technology. Emergency lane-keeping (ELK), driver drowsiness and inattention (DDAW), intelligent speed assist (ISA) and automatic emergency braking (AEB) are now required as standard. However there are some complexities regarding the law’s application to the UK. They aren’t actually mandatory since they have been integrated into New Vehicle General Safety Regulations 2 (GSR2) provision, which the UK – with the exclusion of Northern Ireland – isn’t signed up to. However, it’s likely carmakers will include any EU-compliant software in cars sold across the UK ( it would hardly make sense not to).
What types of active safety features exist?
Active safety features include the following:
Intelligent speed assistance
Intelligent speed assistance (ISA) detects the speed limit on roads using a combination of GPS and cameras. All new cars sold in Europe must contain ISA technology, as of July 2024. The measure was first introduced for new models in July 2022 and any cars built since then which don’t have it will require a retrofitted solution. These solutions can't simply warn the driver that they're travelling too fast, the cars are required to slow themselves to the legally required limit.
As outlined earlier, this requirement isn’t actually mandatory in the UK, however, it’s likely we will see these systems in place in our vehicles, alongside the rest of Europe. Manufacturers can fit cars with 4 different ISA systems that comprise sound warnings, vibration warnings, feedback through the accelerator pedal and direct speed control. EU law states that it must activate automatically each time a driver starts their car and can’t be permanently deactivated. However, cars that are set to automatically limit the speed drivers travel at, can be temporarily deactivate by pressing hard on the accelerator, but the system is reactivated every time they start the car. Ultimately, the driver's still responsible for ensuring the car's travelling at speeds appropriate for the conditions, as well as being within the speed limit.
Autonomous emergency braking
Autonomous emergency braking (AEB) reduces the risk of a collision with another vehicle, pedestrians and cyclists, using forward-facing cameras, RADARs and potentially other sensor technologies. Previously manufacturers had the option of installing such a system, but now all cars manufactured since July 2024 must have some form of AEB (like speed assist, this is EU law, but will very likely be followed by all manufacturers in the UK). It scans the forward path for potential impact targets and applies braking to avoid or mitigate a collision in different scenarios, including car-to-pedestrian and car-to-cyclist. Where a collision can't be avoided it mitigates the impact, with the aim of reducing the severity of injuries.
Adaptive cruise control
Adaptive cruise control (or intelligent cruise control/ ICC) uses sensors to detect how close you are to the car in front. Normally, the driver sets their target speed and preferred following distance to vehicles ahead. The system will automatically reduce the vehicle’s speed to match vehicles driving slower in front, to keep to the distance set, where possible. If the car, or you, switch lanes, adaptive cruise control will accelerate back to the pre-set cruising speed. Adaptive cruise control is overridden by using the accelerator or brakes.
Lane keeping tech
Basic lane-keeping systems warn drivers they're letting the car stray too close to the edge of their lane through an audible warning or vibrating the steering wheel. More advanced systems known as lane keep assist (LKA) will automatically make steering adjustments to keep the driver within lane. Emergency lane keeping (ELK) kicks into action when a car's leaving a lane and is on a collision course with another vehicle and was made mandatory on all new vehicles sold in the EU after July 2024. On some models, active lane keeping joins up with adaptive cruise control to allow the car to steer itself to stay within the lane markings on a motorway, although the driver's required to maintain full attention with both hands on the steering wheel, or the system deactivates with full driving handed back to the driver.
Electronic stability control
Electronic stability control (ESC) is software that's designed to help keep you on course when steering. It can help stabilise a vehicle that's veering off an intended path or at risk of a skid, by automatically reducing engine power and operating individual brakes. ESC (sometimes known as ESP) has been a legal requirement for all cars sold in the European Union since 2014. It's also otherwise known as ASC, DSC, DTSC, ESP, ESP+, VDC, VSA and VSC. Each particular system might have a slight variations in terms of operation, but all are designed to keep the car on its intended path, should the wheels be at risk of losing grip on the road.
Visibility aids
With modern cars there are sometimes conflicting needs and aims from the design which result in poorer visibility than would be ideal, through oversized pillars. Such vehicles tend to compensate with cameras and/or proximity sensors alerting the driver to obstacles they might otherwise miss. The best systems use a range of cameras to construct a 'top-down' view of the car, which result in easy manoeuvring into tight parking spots. Blind-spot cameras can give you a better view using multiple cameras to record the blind spot footage, coupled with a monitor in the interior part of the car. The camera lens records the footage and shows it to the user. A blind spot monitor on the other hand is slightly different in that it uses sensors to detect moving objects nearby and its range is usually smaller than a camera.
Smart seatbelt reminder
Not using seatbelts is a contributing factor in 21% of car occupant fatalities (according to 2022 UK Government statistics). Smart seatbelt reminders can detect which seats are occupied and alert the driver to belts that haven’t been buckled up.
Attention monitoring systems
These systems detect signs that might indicate tiredness in the driver. Some sound an alarm while others cause the seat to vibrate or give visual warnings to alert drivers it's time to have a break from driving. These are one of the 4 systems outlined in this article earlier, made mandatory for new cars on EU roads after July 2024.
Active headlights
Active headlight systems are an active safety feature increasing safety when driving at night. While regular headlights shine straight ahead, adaptive headlights can change position, illuminating the area ahead in addition to areas that are not directly in front of the car. Active beam control links the direction of the head lamp beam directly to the steering. The most advanced use cameras to detect cars ahead, adjusting the headlight beam automatically to provide maximum illumination without dazzling other road users.
Tyre pressure monitoring
Having under or over-inflated tyres can diminish handling and cause accidents. Tyre pressure monitoring systems (TPMS) warn of incorrect tyre pressures, through either direct or indirect pressure monitoring. Direct tyre pressure monitoring uses a sensor inside each tyre to measure the pressure then sends a warning signal to the dashboard. Indirect tyre pressure monitoring systems use the anti-lock brake system (ABS) sensors to monitor wheel speed and any change relative to the other wheels is assumed to be due to a change in tyre pressure.
What are passive safety features?
Passive safety features in cars are those that protect the occupants of a vehicle and other road users if a crash occurs by reducing the impact or level of injury.
What types of passive safety features exist?
Strong body structure
Vehicles are engineered to enhance occupant protection by efficiently distributing crash energy throughout the vehicle, however some will achieve this better than others. Front and rear crumple zones help to absorb the impact of a crash, increasing the safety of occupants. A strong and well-engineered car body shell resists and dissipates crash forces well and provides better protection for those in the cabin.
Dual stage airbags
By detecting the force of a collision through sensors, dual stage airbags determine the right level of deployment. They inflate at a lower intensity for less severe impacts, while in more severe collisions, they deploy at a higher intensity. This reduces the chance of airbag-related injuries. Sensors in the seat also detect where the passenger's sitting, inflating the airbag to provide the best protection.
Optimal head restraints
Front head restraints are tested by Euro NCAP to check their resistance to whiplash injury. Such injuries can be minimised on vehicles with good head restraints that can be raised high enough to suit drivers and passengers of all heights. The top of the head restraint should sit level with the top of the person’s head, and the head should be no more than an inch away from the restraint when the occupant is sitting comfortably for it to be effective.
Seat-mounted side airbags
These help protect the occupants of a vehicle in a side-on crash. Seat-mounted side airbags are designed to keep the occupant in the optimal position during an accident and minimise lateral movement. Side airbags are normally fitted as standard for front-seat passengers but may only be offered as an option in the rear.
Side curtain airbags
These generally drop down from the roof lining above the windows to protect the heads of front and rear passengers in the event of a side-on crash. If you're leasing a 7 seater car it's worth checking that the curtain airbags extend to the third row, as this isn’t always the case.
Knee airbags
Knee airbags are intended to distribute impact forces to reduce leg injuries and may also help reduce forces on an occupant's chest, abdomen and pelvis. They cushion drivers from immovable objects such as the steering column.
Seatbelt pre-tensioners and load-limiters
Pre-tensioners are crucial safety features in frontal crashes, decreasing any slack in the belt, keeping you fixed in your seat. Load limiters control the tension in the belt, preventing injury by allowing the belt to stretch slightly as the crash takes place so that not too much force is placed on the body.
Isofix mounts
ISOFIX, which is named after the International Organization for Standardization, or ISO, is a standardised system for securely attaching child seats into cars. Fitting points are built into both cars and child car seats when they're manufactured.
ISOFIX makes a child’s car seat easier to fit, with less risk of incorrect installation that may not give full protection to the passenger in a crash. 3-point Isofix systems come with 2 lower anchorages, and a third anchor point which can be a ‘top tether’ or a support leg, extended to the floor of the car (which tends to be easier than the top tether). The type you choose will depend on your car, since a car with hollow storage compartments in the floor could collapse with the support leg resting on the lid, for instance.
Pedestrian protection design
Euro NCAP tests all its crash-test cars for pedestrian protection and provides a clear rating for both the protection of children and adults hit by the car under test. The best safety rated vehicles are designed using a variety of technologies to decrease the severity of an impact on pedestrian, through features including pop-up bonnets and deformable bumpers.
Find the makes and models with a good Euro NCAP crash-test score and their category scores here.