7 Options That Need To Be Standard On Every New Car

With phones? This is usually a personal decision that starts and ends with good. With cars? Not so much. These options, standard, severely improve safety and overall help keep everyone safe, directly or indirectly.

Where these options (as they are on many new cars) are absent, not only do their lack pose an instant safety hazard, but also directly impacts the overall comfort of the driver, which impacts, again, indirectly, on safety.

The billion-dollar question: why isn’t every vehicle rolling off the assembly line powered with these options?

I don’t have the direct answer to that (and so can only guess). However, I have a firm grasp of the ‘options’ that need not be options at all.

1. Anti-Lock Braking System (ABS)

I’ve had a lot of challenges with vehicles without anti-lock braking systems…and many of the challenges were at the edge of being fatal. The reason? I have become so used to ABS and always subconsciously believe that when I brake, it will do its thing.

Unfortunately, for vehicles that don’t have the option (most entry-level vehicles don’t, BTW), this deceived me and nearly sent me to the great beyond.

So, what’s this ABS, and why does it matter on a vehicle?

Simply explained, the ABS is a complex braking measure that prevents the wheels from locking up during sudden, hard braking. Instead of the wheels locking up and throwing you off course, the ABS sustains incremental braking, avoiding a lockup. This gives you control over the vehicle and enables you to safely pilot it to a stop.

Why should such a feature be an option on a vehicle?

2. Pedestrian Detection System (PDS)

A Pedestrian Detection System (PDS) is an elaborate safety feature of vehicles. It uses sensors, cameras, and AI to detect, avoid, or assist in braking when it senses other motorists, cyclists, pedestrians, and other obstacles in its course.

This reads like some advanced system that should only be on high-end cars. In truth, it’s a basic system that, thanks to advancements in tech today, can beautifully integrate with ALL modern vehicles.

But why does it matter?

In 2024 alone, more than 30k Americans lost their lives to road accidents. These beautiful people, now perished, had no business with death (and would still be with their loved ones if not for the automobile).

The part that should get us all thinking? If all new vehicles rolling off the assembly line are equipped with PDS (and not as an option for only a handful of vehicles), accident rates, at least for new vehicles, will drop considerably.

Why this isn’t yet mandatory for new vehicles (given its immense benefits) is what I don’t understand.

3. All Auto Windows

The first time I was behind the driver’s seat and noticed that the window controls were all fully automatic, I looked at them for a whole minute and silently muttered: “Now, someone was thinking here”.

If you’re not familiar with the window operation of cars, most cars have the driver’s window set to auto (for some, this applies only to rolling down, and not up). For others, both up and down apply. The rest of the windows? They’ll usually ‘manual’ meaning your hand needs to stay on the switch either way till you have the glass where you desire.

Having all windows auto appears to be a luxury until you factor in that it takes valuable time and attention to get the windows either down or up, especially when driving.

For instance, instead of a simple tap (either up or down), you need to keep your finger on the control and your eyes on the glass in question so that you know exactly when it’s right to stop…

…those precious seconds are enough to have something bad happen – something as bad as an accident.

Plus, to be completely honest, the feel of the all auto operation is truly luxurious – besides being a safety consideration too.

Why make such a critical feature optional?

4. LED Headlights

Technology is an amazing thing…so amazing that it’s simply because of its ‘benevolence’ that you’re able to read my thoughts on this platform (some thousands of miles away, on another part of the globe).

There’s a challenge, however: there are a plethora of folks who still resist technology, in all its glory. Such folks prefer to still believe that the earth is flat and the sun rises and sets. While this is sad and truly makes one shake their head, vehicle manufacturers who fit halogen headlamps to their new vehicles are no different from the folks who still insist, to this day, that the earth is flat!

You may argue that halogens are great and provide okay illumination for the night. You’d be correct, from a passenger’s perspective. As a driver? I almost had PTSD from using the extraordinarily poor headlamps on the now sold Toyota Camry. So bad were the lights that I simply refused to drive the vehicle once dusk set in.

Newer vehicles with LED headlamps are a different ball game altogether: their lamps are so bright that driving through the night is as effortless as driving during the day.

Now, that’s something that truly qualifies as ‘night and day’!

What I don’t understand (but honestly believe is criminal) is the reality of making night driving severely unsafe for everyone by fitting old halogen tech to new cars. As even older cars (with concerned owners) are upgrading their halogen systems to the newer LEDs, are vehicle manufacturers deliberately going out of their way to ensure that newer vehicles are UNSAFE?

5. Disc Brakes

For generations, disc brakes have been touted as a luxury. When they first debuted, they were first fitted on high-end vehicles and racing cars, so this makes sense. However, all that was in the 20th century.

Fast-forward to the 21st century, and things have changed: the technology to mass-produce such things as disc brakes is common and everywhere. Importantly, there is more need for it today than there has ever been, all thanks to their superiority.

Disc brakes are inherently superior to their drum brake cousins in stopping power, especially when they are wet or in the rain. Around mountainous terrains, they’re also vastly superior. That isn’t all: they also have superior staying power, overall, making them inherently safer and generally preferred.

Granted, most vehicle manufacturers today have disc brakes standard in front, but, for most, the rear is usually powered by drum brakes. Drum brakes that fail and misbehave as they please.

This is unacceptable!

6. Heated Mirrors

Almost everything on a vehicle today can be heated (and in some instances, cooled, too). Heated steering wheel, heated seats, and then, heated mirrors. The first two are creature comforts, the latter, an issue of absolute safety. Allow me to explain.

When it’s raining, when a vehicle has been parked overnight in the dew (or snow), or when water – or water vapor – for whatever reason has taken hold of the side mirrors, there’s only one smart way to remove them and ensure clarity again…

…heating the side mirrors!

Driving a vehicle without heated side mirrors when it’s raining (or first thing in the morning after parking it overnight in the elements) is one of the challenges of driving and is effectively a safety hazard.

Unfortunately, there are many cars today, still rolling off the assembly lines without heated side mirrors (something that ought to be standard for every vehicle on the roads today).

The question? Why is this so?

7. Integrated Turn Signals (With Auto Folding Option)

We’ve all been in that ugly situation when we’re in a vehicle’s blind spot and the driver of the said vehicle, confident that they’re indicating a turn (and that there’s no one there), cuts in only to cause us challenges (or general inconvenience).

This happens, largely as a result of turn indicators being only at the front and rear of vehicles.

To avoid this challenge is simple: add turn signals to side mirrors, and the challenge is fixed. With this setting, even if the driver fails to see (because of the blind spot), you’ll see, assuming you’re a cyclist or another motorist.

And, if (and when you see), you’ll also make some noise (by hooting, for example), causing the other driver to reconsider their actions, averting an imminent accident.

However, that isn’t all: that side mirrors need to have turn indicators isn’t all there is to it: they should also be able to fold, automatically, on demand, when parked. This will protect the turn indicators and, importantly, avert accidental costs, no thanks to careless hit-and-run roadside drivers.

Or, who hasn’t parked a car and come back only to meet a broken side mirror?

Unfortunately, car manufacturers are fully aware of these challenges: the important question is this: why do they continue to produce cars without turn indicators in the mirrors and, importantly, why are their mirrors still rigid, without the auto fold option across the board in 2025?

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