Honda Accord technologies

Posted by Car Magazine MotorPlay under Test Drives

Reading about it is one thing and driving it is another.

The dummy issue of Motor Play featured a story on the new Accord where I was totally blown off - but not in a good way, because of a huge step ahead in technology that Honda had just announced. In short, they were talking about the car aiding the driver in difficult situations. At that time, the most unappealing of them all seemed to be the one where the steering provided a short impulse to get you to steer in the right direction should you wake up all of a sudden in a spin.

Well, after dismissing the system for messing with a driver’s capabilities, I find myself now in the position to approve of it. Honda ADAS (Advanced Driver Assist System) incorporates Honda’s Lane Keeping Assist System (LKAS), Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) and the Collision Mitigation Brake System (CMBS), which warns of an impending collision and even applies the brakes to minimise an impact.

So if you want to be your own master, then take your car to a circuit and deactivate all of them. And if you don’t agree with such systems on your personal car, then buy a car without them, but please make that decision after driving one that features all of them.

Because even if you are the second Schumacher and the world hasn’t found out yet, you’ll still find yourself in a situation where the system will help you. I drove the Accord for a week and had so many things on my mind that I didn’t pay attention to all the technology in it until the moment where the safety belt pulled me closer to the seat, all the lights in the dashboard started flashing, warning sounds came on and the car itself started braking. I was texting my wife and the guy in front happened to hit his brakes too hard and too fast for me…

In short, the new Honda Accord keeps you car in lane and steers if it happens to override the lane markers on the road, it brakes if you come too close to the car in front, it starts a steering impulse in the right direction to get the car back on track should you start to spin and it gets your trailer back in line should it start to navigate by it’s own will.

I’m not sure if I’ve seen all that technology in this class before.