Image of Automobile Warning Signs By Eario

I couldn’t be happier today when I learned that we all may be required to have warning systems in our cars that prevents us from having collisions. I have no idea why this wasn’t instituted years ago. I guess the technology wasn’t ready.

VOXX, Audiovox of Hauppauge, Long Island, is one of the first to venture into the aftermarket with a lane departure/forward collision warning system for $549.

That may seen like a lot of money but I think it’s a bargain to keep us alive. Personally, I think drivers on the road are getting worse and worse. We all know the perils of texting while driving, but what about those young folks who speed up and cut you off when they want to change lanes?

The I-95 in south Florida is a complete danger zone. In my opinion, women in their 20s and 30s, are the most offending culprits. They think they are race car drivers swerving in and out of lanes, I am not exactly sure why, but they speed up and switch into your lane just as they get to your front fender. It’s enough to give me a heart attack.

I always fantasize about conducting a citizen arrest. I told Eliot I want to buy the right type of video camera to capture their road behavior and then zero in on the license plate. Every time I get a chance to check out who is driving one of these maniac cars, it turns out to be a young girl smoking a cigarette while she is yaking on the phone,

Many automobiles today have all kinds of warning devices already built-in. For those who don’t, the VOXX system “beeps to let you know if you are leaving your lane (without using your turn signal) so it can alert a drowsy driver or a teen who is not paying attention. It also beeps to let you know if you are closing in on the car ahead too rapidly.”

Coincidentally, a research report was released today by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimating that “the technology could eventually prevent 592,000 left-turn and intersection crashes a year, saving 1,083 lives. The agency said it will begin drafting rules to require the technology in new vehicles.”

The kind of technology the agency is talking about uses a radio signal to “continually transmit a vehicle’s position, heading, speed and other information. Similarly equipped cars and trucks would receive the same information, and their computers would alert drivers to an impending collision.”

The part I love the most about this technology is that “a car would see when another car or truck, equipped with the same technology, was about to run a red light, even if that vehicle were hidden around a corner. A car would also know when a car several vehicles ahead in a line of traffic had made a sudden stop and alert the driver even before the brake lights of the vehicle directly in front illuminate. The technology works up to about 300 yards.”

Click here to learn more about the VOXX system.