Over the past 20 years, Subaru has developed and improved their award winning EyeSight driver-assist technology. Subaru has now brought this technology to South Africa with the new Subaru XV, which was introduced in July 2017.
EyeSight is cutting-edge technology that monitors the road ahead of you and warns you of potentially dangerous driving. In doing so, it helps you reduce and even completely avoid accidents. The technology is so good that in 2016 all Subaru vehicles with the EyeSight tech were awarded the highest safety ratings from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) based in Japan. In addition to that, EyeSight equipped vehicles earned the Advanced Safety Vehicle (ASV++) award by the Japanese New Car Assessment Programme (JNCAP) which is the highest possible safety rating achievable.
How does the EyeSight technology work? Ostensibly named for its stereo camera, EyeSight uses two cameras mounted behind the rear view mirror, the brakes, engine and transmission to do the following:
- Adaptive Cruise Control: As you would expect from any cruise control, this maintains your driving speed on long open roads. What makes it adaptive is it can track the speed of the car in front of you and will automatically slow down if the car in front starts doing the same.
- Pre-collision Throttle Management: This reduces the chance of accidentally moving forward from a stationary position and hitting the car in front of you.
- Pre-collision Braking: This warns the driver of a potential forward collision and if the driver isn’t able to react quick enough, the system automatically applies the brakes to reduce or prevent damage altogether.
- Lane Sway Warning: If the vehicle is unintentionally swaying within the lane, EyeSight will alert the driver. The most common occurrence of this happens with fatigued drivers.
- Lane Departure Warning: In the event the driver falls asleep at the wheel and starts drifting out of their lane, they’ll be alerted by EyeSight.
- Lead Vehicle Start Alert: If a vehicle in front pulls away from a stop and the vehicle fitted with EyeSight remains stationary, Eyesight will notify the driver. In the event the car in front suddenly brakes soon after, EyeSight will alert the driver and automatically brake if it needs to.
What really sets EyeSight apart from the competition is its use of two colour-reading cameras mounted behind the rear view mirror which continuously scans the road ahead for potential danger. Other similar systems use LIDAR, RADAR or single-camera technology and have disadvantages that a stereo camera setup doesn’t suffer from.
LIDAR systems have a short range and will only detect vehicles. RADAR systems have trouble detecting objects nearby and have low resolution and field of view. Single-camera systems have trouble judging distances and can’t detect still objects.
Reduction in accidents
EyeSight has had a noticeable effect on car accidents. Data released by Subaru about a survey on accidents involving Subaru vehicles in Japan between 2010 and 2014 showed a 61% reduction in accidents for Subarus equipped with EyeSight compared to those without. Those are incredible figures and the arrival of EyeSight in South African will be a huge benefit in making our roads safer.
EyeSight is intricate by nature and will add a few digits to the price of the vehicle. Should the system be damaged in some way, you’ll be covered by Subaru’s vehicle warranty. However, once the warranty runs out you’ll want to make sure you can get an extended warranty that covers a safety system as advanced as EyeSight. If you’re looking at purchasing a Subaru with EyeSight we suggest going to http://www.warrantyextender.co.za/ in order to have a warranty representative call you to discuss this.
Staff Writer
