Originally Posted by theDreamer

Lately I have noticed a new trend in car commercials, many luxury brands, but even some non luxury brands. The idea that they are developing new software & hardware to prevent accidents. Now I am not against the idea of technology progress or the idea of preventing accidents, but why are companies spending so much money on new technology without upgrading current tech?

Brakes:
-A good upgrade for any car and through racing and other sciences have developed some major forward steps. Pads, current pad technology is great in that we can have great bite with low dust and no noise. Calipers, bigger calipers and proper design helps in cooling and making sure your brakes perform the same time and again.

Tires:
-A optimal upgrade which OEM manufactures could easily pick up. It might sacrifice a bit in noise or tire life, but with how much sound control and noise reduction built into cars an average driver would not even notice.

Heavier is better:
-Not sure how this became such a prominent thought in the industry, but you have cars which are very light weight (sub 3500) which stop better, just as good crash ratings and have solid real world results.

The reason for some of these points is that, you reduce stopping distance, you eliminate many accidents. Both on the highway, red lights or stop signs, etc.

One of the main commercials which has set me to write this post is a Mercedes commercial. They have 4 or 5 people talking about how they were falling asleep, drifting lanes, person in front of them stopped short. Why is Mercedes having to fix a human error or not provide better stopping abilities in their cars. Instead they want to develop nanny controls which stop for you or pull you back into your lane to correct your drift.