Modern cars are dramatically safer than they were even a decade ago, thanks to a combination of built-in technology and smarter engineering. But a surprising amount of your safety still comes down to things you can control yourself: how you maintain your vehicle, how you set up your seat, and which features you prioritize when buying. Here’s what actually makes the biggest difference.
Active Safety Systems That Prevent Crashes
The most effective safety improvements don’t protect you during a crash. They stop the crash from happening. These “active” safety systems use cameras, radar, and sensors to monitor the road and intervene when you can’t react fast enough.
Automatic emergency braking (AEB) is the standout. Vehicles equipped with AEB and forward collision warning are involved in 43 percent fewer rear-end crashes overall, 64 percent fewer rear-end crashes with injuries, and 68 percent fewer rear-end crashes where a third party gets hurt. Starting in 2029, federal rules will require AEB on all new light vehicles sold in the U.S., including pedestrian detection that works at speeds up to about 45 mph in both daylight and darkness.
Electronic stability control, which has been required on new cars since 2012, cuts fatal single-vehicle crash risk in half by automatically adjusting braking at individual wheels when the system detects a skid. Blind-spot monitoring, now common on midrange trims, reduces lane-change crashes with injuries by 23 percent. If your car has these systems, make sure they’re turned on. Many drivers unknowingly disable them through settings menus or steering wheel buttons.
How Your Car’s Structure Protects You
Active systems get the headlines, but passive safety engineering is what saves your life if a collision actually happens. Crumple zones at the front and rear of the vehicle are designed to absorb energy by folding in a controlled way, so the force doesn’t reach the passenger compartment. The cabin itself is built to stay rigid.
Automakers increasingly use ultra-high-strength boron steel around door frames, roof pillars, and seat structures to resist cabin intrusion. Volvo’s XC90, for example, uses boron steel extensively throughout its body structure. This type of steel is far stronger per pound than conventional steel, which lets engineers build a lighter car without sacrificing crash protection. When you’re shopping for a vehicle, checking its IIHS and NHTSA crash ratings is the fastest way to compare structural safety. The IIHS updated its side-impact test in 2021 to reflect real-world conditions better: the striking barrier now weighs 4,200 pounds and hits at 37 mph, mimicking the front end of a modern SUV rather than a smaller, lighter car.
Tire Maintenance Changes Stopping Distance Dramatically
This is one of the most overlooked safety factors. Worn tires don’t just wear out gradually. Their performance on wet roads falls off a cliff.
In testing by Tire Rack, a sedan with new tires stopped from 60 mph on wet pavement in 205 feet. The same car with tires worn to 4/32 of an inch of tread needed 270 feet. And at the barely legal minimum of 2/32 inch, the car needed 400 feet to stop, nearly double the distance. To put that in perspective: at the point where the car on new tires had already come to a complete stop, the car on worn tires was still traveling at 50 mph.
Check your tread depth with a quarter. Insert it headfirst into a tread groove. If you can see the top of Washington’s head, you’re at about 4/32 inch, and your wet braking is already significantly compromised. Replacing tires before they reach the legal minimum is one of the simplest things you can do to make your car safer.
Set Your Headrest Correctly
Most people never adjust their headrest after buying a car, but incorrect positioning is a major factor in whiplash injuries. Research on Volvo vehicles found that when an occupant’s head was more than 4 inches away from the headrest at the time of a rear impact, the duration of injury symptoms increased significantly.
For the best protection, the top of the headrest should sit no more than about 2.4 inches below the top of your head, which places it above the center of gravity of your skull. The horizontal gap between the back of your head and the headrest surface should be less than 2.8 inches for a “good” rating, and anything over 4 inches is considered a clear risk factor. If your headrest tilts forward, adjust it so it’s as close to the back of your head as comfortable. Many fixed headrests on newer cars are already angled forward for this reason.
Car Seats for Children
For young passengers, the single most important safety decision is keeping them rear-facing as long as possible. A rear-facing car seat cradles a child and moves with them during a crash, distributing force across the back and reducing stress on the neck and spinal cord, which are particularly fragile in young children.
Children under one year old should always ride rear-facing. From ages one to three, NHTSA recommends keeping them rear-facing until they reach the maximum height or weight limit allowed by their specific car seat. Many convertible seats now accommodate rear-facing children up to 40 or even 50 pounds, which means some kids can stay rear-facing until age four or beyond. Once a child outgrows the rear-facing limits, they should move to a forward-facing seat with a harness and top tether.
Vehicle-to-Everything Communication
The next major leap in crash prevention is cars that talk to each other and to roadside infrastructure. Known as V2X (vehicle-to-everything) communication, this technology addresses a problem that cameras and radar can’t fully solve: hazards you can’t see.
On-board sensors are easily limited by bad weather, poor lighting, and objects blocked by buildings or other vehicles. V2X uses cellular networks to receive warnings from roadside units that monitor traffic flow and detect pedestrians, stalled vehicles, or other dangers up to a kilometer away. If a pedestrian steps into a crosswalk around a blind corner, for instance, a roadside camera can identify them, predict their path, and broadcast that information to every equipped vehicle in range. This kind of non-line-of-sight awareness is something no amount of on-board sensors can replicate on their own, and it’s already being tested in pilot programs in several U.S. cities.
What to Prioritize When Buying
If you’re shopping for a safer car, focus on three things. First, check IIHS Top Safety Pick ratings, which now factor in updated, more demanding crash tests. Second, make sure AEB with pedestrian detection, blind-spot monitoring, and electronic stability control come standard rather than as part of an expensive package. Third, look at the vehicle’s structural rating in side-impact and small-overlap front crash tests, which are the scenarios most likely to cause serious injury.
Many of the biggest safety gains are already built into cars sold in the last five to seven years. If you’re driving something older, the most impactful upgrades you can make are maintaining your tires, adjusting your headrest, and keeping your seatbelt’s shoulder strap positioned across the center of your chest rather than against your neck.