Mady Engel

Mady Engel is the senior automotive designer engineer at Ford Motor Company and a member of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Advanced Technology in Vehicles is  Necessary in Today’s Society

When people think about technology and cars, their minds most likely go to the tragic and deadly accidents caused by texting and driving. People tend not to think about all of the positives of technology in cars and focus on the negatives. As an automotive designer and engineer, I am one of the people responsible for designing the cars produced by Ford. But, as a driver and member of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, I see how technological advances have made the roads safer than ever before. The advancement of technology in vehicles has become a necessity, new features in vehicles have increased overall safety, comfort, security, and enjoyment of our vehicles. 

Navigation systems have come a long way since they were first put in cars. Imagine having to pull out a big bulky map to try and get somewhere new. The navigation system in cars have made it safer and easier to get where we want to go. Instead of having a big bulky map as a distraction to the driver, we now have navigation systems. “Modern navigation technology can search for local points of interest, download traffic data, automatically detour in case of an accident, and much, much more” (modern navigation). Not only does this save time, it also makes our roads safer. Having GPS in our vehicles has become a necessity in today’s society due to the commonness of cellphones. We are less distracted by our cellphones if we have all the tech needed pre-installed in our cars. While other types of technology develops, so must the technology in cars. 

The technology that has been developed for use in our cars is very easy to use and also starts to work automatically, without pushing any buttons. On vehicles equipped with a backup alarm or backup camera, all you have to do is shift the car into reverse. This is no different than without the tech, accept that you’re provided with a better sense of what is around you. “Until the early 2000s, the only ways to know what was happening behind your car as you backed out of the driveway was [sic] to look at your trusty mirrors or to crane your neck and look out the rear windshield. Neither approach could cover the area directly behind the car, putting children and pets at risk” (popular mechanics). Some high-end vehicles even come with night vision technology to help identify pedestrians in the dark. Having these types of tech in all cars could save thousands of people’s lives.

Automatic emergency braking, adaptive cruise control, and 360-degree cameras are examples of more technology that saves lives. All of these serve one purpose, to make or driving experience safer. Automatic emergency braking helps to prevent things such as rear-end accidents and t-boning accidents. Adaptive cruise control can help in instances where drivers have cruise control set but happen to be distracted by things such as children in the back seat. Adaptive cruise control breaks and slows down on its own when you’re coming up to close to the car in front of you to prevent rear-end accidents. The 360-degree camera helps drivers to be better aware of their surroundings, making the roads safer than ever. 

The development of tech in cars is meant to make our driving experiences safer, easier and more enjoyable. And it has done just that. I believe that the advanced technology in today’s vehicles is now necessary to keep our roads safer and to prevent innocent lives from being taken from us to early.