Just love special edition American cop cars.
GM is adding new safety features and options to its Tahoe Police Pursuit Vehicle (PPV), including stuff designed to help reduce crash speeds or help avoid a crash all together.
“We want to protect our protectors and help them get home safely at the end of every shift,” GM’s Ed Peper said.
“The safety technologies we are introducing on the Tahoe PPV may serve as a second set of eyes.”
The centrepiece is a new Enhanced Driver Assist Package that’s the first of its kind for a pursuit-rated vehicle.
The package is built around five distinct technologies and features:
- Low Speed Forward Automatic Braking (high speed might help)
- Forward Collision Alert (always a good thing)
- Lane Keep Assist with Lane Departure Warning (annoying more than anything else)
- Power Adjustable Pedals (just like the Falcon used to have)
- Safety Alert Driver Seat (this one’s a newie on us. The GM-patented device gives drivers the option of getting haptic seat-bottom vibration pulses instead of audible crash avoidance alerts – kind of a buzz through the bum).
“When they’re on road patrol, police officers are constantly multitasking,” Theodore Quisenberry, a 43-year law enforcement veteran said.
“Now when officers are scanning their surroundings, so is their vehicle. That will help them stay safe.”
According to a 2017 Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) report on front crash prevention, vehicles with forward collision warning reduced the rate of rear-end crashes reported to police by 27 percent and when combined with automatic braking cut the rate by 50 percent.
Now that’s a good thing.