Technology takes the wheel

From innovative assistance systems to the use of artificial intelligence to prevent accidents, technological advances have redefined the perception of safe driving for motorists.

To learn more about this topic, at Conductores we spoke with experts and executives from brands such as Volvo, Kia and General Motors de México (GM), which are recognized for their high level of safety and for having successfully passed rigorous crash tests.

From the DNA

Volvo is focused on the safety of people, with the primary objective being to protect lives. From the vehicle structure, body materials and chassis, to advanced technology , everything is designed with this purpose in mind.

You may be interested in: Mexico defines preliminary list to face the Nations League

“Safety tests are carried out at a specialised centre in Torslanda, Sweden , where collisions are simulated to study how the vehicles react. They also investigate real accidents to analyse how the safety systems react to specific situations,” explained Jennifer Montejo Buitrón , Product and Price Manager at Volvo .

The brand has begun studying how different body types (female, male, pregnant women and children) react to crashes in order to make vehicles even safer.

Volvo uses advanced technologies such as reversing sensors, 360-degree cameras and the "Safe and Space Technology" system . This system includes alerts if the vehicle detects an unintentional lane change and this is being worked on to be able to have vehicles with zero recorded collisions.

In order to avoid accidents altogether, the company is investing in autonomous driving, using sensors and computers that will allow the vehicle to drive itself in the future.

Another very important feature is the Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) technology that is standard in its vehicles, which helps prevent accidents by making automatic adjustments to the steering wheel and brakes, or alerting about moving objects in parking lots.

Bet

For its part, Kia continues to establish itself as one of the manufacturers of the safest vehicles evaluated in its segment.

Rubén Hoyo, national manager of Product Planning and Public Relations at Kia Mexico, said that the Korean manufacturer conducts computer simulations and tests before implementing them in vehicles. “Kia has large research and development centers where simulations are carried out, we perform dynamic and internal impact tests to evaluate the structural performance of our models,” he said.

He added that their cars are subjected to third-party assessments, such as Latin NCAP in Latin America and the NHTSA in the United States . “An example is the Kia K3, manufactured in Nuevo Leon, which obtained five stars in the Latin NCAP assessment,” he said.

Both Kia's Ruben Hoyo and Volvo 's Jennifer Montejo came to the same conclusion about ADAS, which has been developed to reduce and eventually eliminate accidents altogether.

The automotive industry is moving towards safer and more autonomous mobility, not only protecting vehicle occupants, but also pedestrians and cyclists.

These systems, which function as a guardian angel for the driver, use sensors and cameras to detect risks and prevent accidents, and over time, they seek to evolve towards completely autonomous driving.

From planning

For his part, José Elías Ruede, Director of Engineering at the GM Regional Engineering Center, talked about how the company develops and tests safety systems. “When we define the architecture of our vehicles, we include the content of the systems and the design of their components, which will have to do with the safety of the cars. These systems are included in the designs and are first analyzed virtually by means of CAE, or Computer Design and Engineering Analysis; this way they are optimized before they are built,” he said.

Artificial intelligence is an essential part of GM, as it helps them to have better designs by being able to do a virtual analysis more quickly. José Elías Ruede gave the example of going from two weeks to 15 minutes in the preparation of a virtual analysis model.

Experts agreed that technology and artificial intelligence are redefining the way drivers and pedestrians are protected.