The very concept of driving is about as bonkers as the idea of a clown jumping out of a plane with an umbrella for a parachute. Just think about it for a moment. It’s driving on an uneven road at 70mph-plus toward other blocks of metal with just a white line to separate you. That’s crazy. Yet, somehow, the risks only seemed to get noticed in the 1990s when anti-lock brakes and airbags were introduced as the must-have safety tech.

Thankfully, driving tech has come a long-long way since then, reshaping the way people drive and reducing the risks involved when you slip behind the wheel. Sure, there will always be human error to think about (unless autonomous cars really do become a thing), but the latest tech acts on that fact and makes humans that much more aware of the dangers, as you’re about to see.

1.Lane Detection Systems

Drifting into another lane while casually speeding down the highway may seem like a blue-moon kind of mistake, but that blue-moon is to blame for 1.6 million crashes each year, many of which fall into the category entitled ‘ deadly’. That’s where lane detection technology comes in. When you start drifting out of your lane, your vehicle alerts you. It could be an audible alarm, or it might be vibrations in the seat or steering wheel. Either way, you’ll know.

2.Forward Collision Warning

Rear-ending another vehicle is the most deadly type of crash out there; a collision that can cause a serious amount of car crash aftermath. We’re talking whiplash at the very least, and the not worth thinking about at the worst. This is what forward collision warning systems hope to prevent, whether it be an audible warning that you need to brake or the car automatically breaking on your behalf. It’s a technology that has already had a 23% impact

3.Adaptive Cruise Control

There is a myriad of benefits to be had from using cruise control, from better fuel economy to not speeding. But the up and coming technology that is adaptive cruise control is taking things even further by automatically adjusting the throttle based on the traffic ahead. It does this using lasers and radars to judge the distance between your bonnet and the car in front. That means no more manually resetting your cruise control. Genius.

4.Adaptive Headlights

Driving at night is one of those things a lot of people get nervous about. Sure, it’s not so bad if you’re sticking to well-lit highways from point A to point B, but for the smaller, windier roads it can be more nerve-wracking than a night in a bear cave. But with adaptive headlights all that is set to change. The way this work is by automatically adjusting both the direction and the intensity of your headlights based on the steering wheel. This means they will be able to better illuminate the road around turns and curves, and over hills, highlighting potentially hazardous conditions.

Driving is not risk-free, but it has never been so safe either.