Safe Driving Techniques

Distracted driving is illegal and the cause of most accidents. Most would consider reading distractive.

Added: YES, it definitely is. . . the charge in some jurisdictions is: "Failing to Give Full Time and Attention" to the operation of the vehicle.

This electronic system can stop drivers from losing control of their car in sudden manoeuvres or skids, and independent studies have shown it could prevent up to a third of all road accidents. This car safety feature is commonly known as ESP, but other acronyms used by manufacturers include: ASC, DSC, DTSC, ESC, ESP+, VDC, VSA and VSC.

This enhancement of anti-lock brakes (ABS) reduces brake force if grip differs at each wheel, helping to bring the car to a halt predictably and in a straight line.

Citroen's Lane Departure Warning System vibrates the base of the driver's seat when the car strays across motorway lanes without indicating. More advanced systems (like Honda's Lane Keep Assist System on the Accord and Legend) automatically make steering adjustments to keep you in the centre of the lane.

A stable car body shell resists crash forces well and provides better protection for those in the cabin. Look for cars with a good Euro NCAP crash-test score.

Curtain airbags are a great safety feature

As a nation we're pretty good at buckling up, but not using seat belts is still a major factor in road traffic injury statistics. The best systems (such as in the Volvo S40) don't just remind the driver to buckle up, they sense which seats are occupied and alert the driver if any other belts haven't been fastened.

Seat belt pre-tensioners take up any slack in the belt when they detect a crash is imminent. Load limiters, on the other hand, prevent injury by allowing the belt to stretch slightly in a crash if too high a load is placed on the seat's occupant.

These inflate less rapidly in lower severity impacts, reducing the chance of airbag-related injuries.

Whiplash can be prevented with well-positioned headrests

Poorly-adjusted head restraints account for many whiplash injuries. Make sure that a car's head restraints can be raised high enough to suit drivers and passengers of all heights -- the top of the head restraint should sit level with the top of a person's head for it to be effective. Also, check to make sure the car has a good Thatcham whiplash rating.

These help protect the pelvis, chest and abdomen in a side-on crash. Seat-mounted side airbags are preferable to door-mounted airbags as they stay in the correct position when the seat is moved.

These usually drop down from the roof lining above the windows to protect the heads of front and rear passengers in the event of a side-on crash.

Isofix is a system for fitting child seats that uses mounting points built into the car seats, rather than the adult seat belt. Three-point Isofix systems are best, as they have a 'top tether' as well as two lower anchorages. As long as you follow the instructions, Isofix should make fitting a child car seat easier, too. You can find a Best Buy child car seat here.

Cars with a more 'pedestrian friendly' front end should reduce the severity of injury if you're unfortunate enough to hit a pedestrian -- particularly at speeds of up to 30mph. Look for cars with a high Euro NCAP pedestrian safety score.

13. Genenration of Hybrid Cars

I believe hybrid cars are the most genius inventions in the modern auto industry. When my brother's gf came from Russia after they talked on dream marriage, he took her on a road trip around the Southern Cali, and he saved so much money on gas, thanks to toyota prius.

A fingerprint scanner system has two basic jobs -- it needs to get an image of your finger, and it needs to determine whether the pattern of ridges and valleys in this image matches the pattern of ridges and valleys in pre-scanned images. There are a number of different ways to get an image of somebody's finger. The most common methods today are optical scanning and capacitance scanning. Both types come up with the same sort of image, but they go about it in completely different ways. The heart of an optical scanner is a charge coupled device (CCD), the same light sensor system used in digital cameras and camcorders. A CCD is simply an array of light-sensitive diodes called photosites, which generate an electrical signal in response to light photons. Each photosite records a pixel, a tiny dot representing the light that hit that spot. Collectively, the light and dark pixels form an image of the scanned scene (a finger, for example). Typically, an analog-to-digital converter in the scanner system processes the analog electrical signal to generate a digital representation of this image.

The scanning process starts when you place your finger on a glass plate, and a CCD camera takes a picture. The scanner has its own light source, typically an array of light-emitting diodes, to illuminate the ridges of the finger. The CCD system actually generates an inverted image of the finger, with darker areas representing more reflected light (the ridges of the finger) and lighter areas representing less reflected light (the valleys between the ridges). Before comparing the print to stored data, the scanner processor makes sure the CCD has captured a clear image. It checks the average pixel darkness, or the overall values in a small sample, and rejects the scan if the overall image is too dark or too light. If the image is rejected, the scanner adjusts the exposure time to let in more or less light, and then tries the scan again. If the darkness level is adequate, the scanner system goes on to check the image definition (how sharp the fingerprint scan is). The processor looks at several straight lines moving horizontally and vertically across the image. If the fingerprint image has good definition, a line running perpendicular to the ridges will be made up of alternating sections of very dark pixels and very light pixels. If the processor finds that the image is crisp and properly exposed, it proceeds to comparing the captured fingerprint with fingerprints on file.