On a crisp December day last year I found myself trying to keep warm in the middle of an airfield in Bicester, waiting for a specially designed mechanical man to walk in front of a car. It was one of the more random moments of my career watching an army of 4 technicians punching information into a computer and pulling levers to make this reluctant star do his thing. After a bit of coaxing he moon walked into action and with perfect timing crossed the path of a Honda Civic as it was driven by Thatcham Research’s Matthew Avery and What Car? consumer editor Claire Evans in the passenger seat.
The car did exactly what it should and stopped automatically avoiding a collision. This and other safety tech feature in a new video we’ve just produced with What Car? which has been produced as part of the What Car? Safety Awards 2018. As always, it was great working with our friends at Haymarket and was particularly challenging as the day went from super bright low December sun to thick fog in minutes, so bad in fact, we could even see the road on the way home!