General Motors has helped reduce pedestrian injury and fatality in Europe with the active-hood system on a number of vehicles in 2007.
Now, 10 years later, the system is already available in the United States and South Korea, and, starting today, in China too, where it's offered as standard on the new generation Regal, known in other parts of the globe as the Opel/Vauxhall Insignia, and Holden Commodore.
The idea behind the system is simple: it uses a pyrotechnic actuator to lift up the back of the hood by about 10cm (4in), in just a few milliseconds, to lessen the impact and reduce injury to pedestrians. The active hood was developed by General Motors in collaboration with six other automakers and an automotive supplier, and works at speeds between 25 and 48km/h (16-30mph).
"If you consider the European market alone, where GM first introduced this system in 2007, we have seen the number of fatalities drop by 50 percent in the last 10 years", said GM's lead Active Hood Systems' engineer Wahaj Hussain. "By introducing this feature in China, we hope to eventually see similar results."
Besides the active-hood technology, the new generation Buick Regal is offered with an assortment of driver assist and safety features, such as the pedestrian detection, collision mitigation braking, adaptive cruise control, ESP, cornering brake control, hill start assist, tire pressure monitoring, EEPO brake override, and others.
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