Safety tech front and centre for Canstar Blue Innovation Excellence awards

Subaru EyeSight and Volvo pedestrian avoidance technology amongst winners of Canstar Blue's Innovation Excellence - Automotive Industry 2015 awards.

Improvements to vehicle safety technology have been the focus of the 2015 Canstar Blue Innovation Awards - Automotive Industry.

The inaugural awards for innovation have been judged by a panel of experts. Previously, Canstar Blue has bestowed awards on manufacturers in areas such as value and customer satisfaction, based off surveys of car buyers.

Eight joint winners were announced today, with five directly improve the safety of both vehicle occupants as well as pedestrians.

Ford's MyKey technology uses multiple keys to allow parents to set speed restrictions and limit radio volume when their children borrow the car.

EyeSight - available in a number of Subaru vehicles - integrates a number of safety features including autonomous emergency braking and adaptive cruise control by using multiple cameras to map out the road ahead of the vehicle and warn the driver of approaching obstructions.

IntellisSafe Pedestrian Detection works in a similar manner, and has been devleoped by Swedish carmaker Volvo.

Nuviz, based out of San Diego in the US, has developed what they claim to be first heads-up display for motorcycle riders. The Ride:HUD can be retrofitted to most existing motorcycle helmets and allows riders to use GPS and monitor bike telemetry without having to take their eyes off the road. Riders control the Ride:HUD using controls mounted on the bike's handlebars.

Looking to help curtail the number of deaths and injuries that occur in driveways, electronics company Bosch developed Back Over Avoidance (BoA). BoA works in must the same way as AEB does, using sensors and radars to monitor the area directly behind the car, and automatically apply the brakes if it detects if it detects an obstruction.

Hyundai's iCare capped price servicing program also picked up an award for providing transparency about servicing costs to consumers.

Other award winners included Mercedes-Benz's Touchpad - which allows drivers to control the Comand multimedia system in the same way they would a typical smart phone - and the Tesla Model S electric car.

Canstar Blue General Manager, Megan Doyle, said their research has found that 55 per cent of insurance claims involve an accident with two or more cars and that "anything that car manufacturers can do to improve the safety of our roads and driveways should be applauded".

"The aim of these awards is to bring the latest and greatest innovations to the attention of consumers, and we have been hugely surprised and impressed by what we have found," she said.