Mobileye makes advanced safety features available off the shelf

Readers of CNET Car Tech will be familiar with advanced safety systems such as collision-avoidance sensors, lane-departure warning devices, and adaptive cruise control. Trouble is, if you don't own a recently produced luxury car, you are unlikely to see the benefit of this technology. Mobileye is about to change that by making its AWS-4000 available in the aftermarket. Mobileye has some experience in this department as it is the active-safety supplier of choice for Volvo, BMW, and GM. The AWS-4000 (the acronym stands for Advance Warning System) is made up of three components: a monocular camera, which is mounted forward of the rearview mirror to monitor the road; two speakers, which are mounted on or under the car's dash; and an LED display.

The system provides three driver-assistance applications: Forward Collision Warning monitors the road ahead and notifies the driver if the time to collision with the car in front drops below 2.7 seconds; Lane Departure Warning, which measures the distance from the car's wheels to the lane markings and notifies the driver with an audible and visual warning if it thinks the driver is unintentionally leaving the lane; and a headway monitoring system, which provides a readout on the distance to the car in front.

The AWS-4000 will retail with a price of around $1,500 in the U.S., exclusive of installation, which is not cheap. But at least it's not as much as a BMW.