There are few things that car lovers can all agree on, but when it comes to safety and a less expensive cost of ownership, most can put their differences aside and work towards that. SEAT, a Spanish car company, introduced earlier yesterday (Nov. 13, 2017) what they’re calling there safest car in their 67-year existence. Dubbed the Seat Leon Cristobal, Seat is touting that if half the cars on the road today had this particular suite of technology like their Cristobal concept, traffic accidents would drop by 40-percent and insurance would logically be cheaper for cars with this kind of safety record.
SEAT Leon Cristobal – It's like having your GRANNY in the front seat #SEAT #SEATLeon #SmartCityExpo https://t.co/O0a7WCLIH9 pic.twitter.com/qN5aI045pW
— Cars UK (@CarsUK) November 15, 2017
According to AutoExpress, Seat engineers looked at EU data on the three main causes of traffic accidents; speeding, distraction, and drunk driving. With SEAT Leon Cristobal, a set of unique functions hopes to combat what causes accidents to happen in the first place.
To combat drunk driving, there’s a breathalyzer of sorts connected to your ignition that will not let you drive if it detects alcohol in your bloodstream.
Cameras placed at the rear relay an image to your rear view mirror eliminating blind spots. Those same cameras in addition to others also record images and data in the event of a crash and relay that information to a designated smartphone for insurance purposes.
Parents can use a Mentor App to monitor how fast someone is driving in their Seat Leon and can see within set boundaries, where someone is going.
Most comprehensively is Seat Leon Cristobal’s Guardian Angel mode which uses 15 active and passive safety systems to monitor and assist a driver when necessary. Certain Seat Leon trim levels already benefit from some level of autonomous driving and driving assist like radar assisted traffic driving, adaptive cruise control, cameras pointed to your eyes set to recognize drowsy driving, adaptive high-beams that don’t blind oncoming drivers, traffic sign recognition, and pedestrian protection that will brake for you should you fail to see someone.
I bring this car up as even though we can’t buy a Seat Leon as technology successful on this car will eventually trickle down to its VW group siblings (e.g. the MQB platform models like the Golf and even the new Atlas.)
And if you didn’t know, Cristobal refers to the Patron Saint of drivers, St. Christopher.
